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Sperryville
By SALLY KEYSER
987-8471
The hause and persimmon are the last trees of fall to still have their fruit hanging on. The older folks would say this determined what kind of weather the winter would bring. More fruit meant a colder winter.
The American persimmon is a small to medium sized rough barked tree with oval shaped leaves. They grow along roads and in abandoned fields, and in a wide range of soil. They are known to be hardy at temperatures of 20-25 degrees below zero without winter injury.
Persimmons belong to the Diospros family which means “fruit of the god Zeus.”
The fruit of the native persimmons are round or oval, and about the size of a plum.
They ripen in the fall, and we were always told they could not be eaten before a killing frost. Persimmons are all astringent (puckering) until they are ripe. Now they say this is an old wives tale. What they need is to color completely and get just a little softer, like a real ripe tomato. Then they’re among the tastiest of fruit.
Their taste is very distinctive and is difficult to describe to someone who has never eaten one.
Unharvested fruit remain
95.3%