picture from internetYou can tell, because we don't wear coats this early!
Well we did the deed and I am not happy about it!
Territory Mom over at OklaHome reminded me, we needed to do this!
One day this past week, the boys picked a few persimmons and we proceeded to have a lesson in predicting the weather.
Have you ever looked inside a persimmon seed? Yes, that little orange colored fruit that makes you pucker if you try to taste one before a good frost! After a frost, they taste a little like an apricot.
If you cut open a persimmon seed, you’ll find a little white sprout looking thing. These “sprouts” come in three shapes ~ fork, spoon and knife.
If one sees the fork, it means a mild winter with dry powdery snow.
If one sees a spoon, it means a lot of wet snow for the upcoming winter, so get the snow shovel ready! (Not really, because we don’t use snow shovels in Oklahoma, which is a whole ‘nuther post!)
If one sees a knife, it means cold winter winds are ahead. The kind that “cut” right through you!
It’s a little tricky cutting a persimmon seed in half. If you try this at home, be careful!
Each boy picked three persimmons, from three different areas in the pasture. We ended up with one fork….don’t get excited! One knife and seven spoons! The boys think that is “so cool”, but I am demanding a recount!
The way I figure it, if it takes a good frost to make the fruit edible, maybe it takes a good frost to set the sprout….finish it’s developing process….it could be! Then possibly all those spoons we found were under developed forks! Yeah, I like that forecast much better!
The persimmon is native to North America and it was the Algonquin Indians who called it putchamin, pasiminan, or pessamin, depending on the dialect of the tribe. The unpleasant taste when eaten before it is ripe is due to the tannin present in the fruit. Some say, it isn’t the frost that makes the difference, rather persimmons are not ripe until well into October.
I can vouch for the last part! I had terribly mean cousins who were forever talking me into tasting unripe persimmons! They would say, “No, really, they're ready now!” Now, I get to be the mean one!! Hey guys, you want taste this? No, really, it taste good!;)
Have a blessed weekend!
send your spoons to the northeast, we'll take it. : ) In my house, we all love snowy winters.
ReplyDeleteI hate to admit this but I didn't know what persimmons were!
ReplyDeleteHope all is well with you.
i was tricked into biting into an unripe persimmon once. but you only do that once! i just love the way ripe persimmons look when they are hanging on the tree, especially when everything else has fallen and the tree is bare, with just that beautiful fruit hanging on it. there are only a few trees around this area and every fall/winter i tell myself to stop and photograph that lovely sight, perhaps this year i will.
ReplyDeletehave a blessed weekend.
We had two persimmon tress when I was a child, one had the beautiful delicious fruit that ripened to look like luscious orange jelly, and it was luscious, the other had solid colour fruit, and I did not fancy it, though perhaps I never had a ripe one!
ReplyDeleteBlessings, Jan
I have never heard this! But I'm wondering on the spoon part if wet snow also equals ICE which we always have here in Oklahoma! That's not a good forecast!
ReplyDelete