Here's another excerpt from a guide I am writing:
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| Diospyros texana |
Texas Persimmon, Diospyrostexana
Eatthe black ripe fruit raw or use the pulp in wine, breads, pies, jams,sauces and puddings. Be sure to get all the pulp off around the seeds, butdon’t eat them!
Some places in South, West andCentral Texas are blessed with Texas persimmon thickets so productive that onecan pick gallons full of ripe fruit off of one tree in mid-summer. Eating aperfectly ripe Texas persimmon is as wonderful as indulging in a berry patch.In Texas’ version of Eden, Eve probably would have been tempted by thisluscious fruit. Then again, the risk of encountering poison ivy or a snake islow since the persimmons are usually and conveniently picked right around eyelevel – just be sure you have your boots on.
Texas persimmons are slow-growing,multi-trunked trees with a semi-evergreen habit. Their light grey bark issmooth and sloughs off in large flakes as the tree ages. When the tree hasreceived moisture at the right times during the year, the black-colored ripepersimmons can be as large as golf balls though they are more commonly the sizeof large marbles. Eitherway, their taste is something like a prune, but less tart and more sugarymaking it one of the best tasting wild fruits in Texas.
Ripe persimmons will look plump,round and smooth and can easily be pulled from their limbs. Squeeze the innerpulp out of the skin and into your mouth for a lovely treat on a hot summerafternoon. Once you’ve sucked all the pulpy sweetness off the seeds, spit themout and eat another. You’ll need to indulge in several to feel full. Then, pickas many as you can for your recipes. When you arrive back in your kitchen, washand dry them – they will store in the refrigerator for a couple of days orfreeze them for several months. Most recipes using persimmons will call forpersimmon pulp - about 4 cups of Texas persimmons will make 1 cup of pulp.Since Texas persimmons are small, you’ll want to make every effort at pulpingcount. After you’ve removed the stem end or calyx, use a cone sieve or food millfor best results and employ a rubber spatula to scrape the sides every once inawhile. Once you’ve collected as much pulp as possible, there will still bequite a bit of pulp stuck to the seeds and the sides of your sieve. Run arubber spatula down the sides of the sieve, and then clean the seeds off inyour mouth to get that final bit of goodness. You can also throw the entirepulpy fruit blob in a saucepan, add some water and make it into persimmon juicefor jelly.
