A New Hopersimmon

It's not much to look at, I know, but on the bank of the Ohio River a few days ago I found American Persimmons on the ground and now I have their seeds.


When we lived in Georgetown we had such a tree in our backyard.  This is not a common thing, as far north as we are, and we felt we had been given a rather low-profile blessing - let's face it, most people have never seen a persimmon, let alone wanted one in their yard.  But to us this was a charming find.  Lee Ann figured out how to make persimmon pudding, which was probably on every American's list of favorite desserts in 1850 or so.  But then we moved, and the new owners (being more conventional types and therefore blind to the cool factor) cut down our little persimmon tree.  The dogs.


At our "new" place (we have been here six years) we planted a persimmon tree we got from a nursery.  It still has not borne fruit but it is probably one of those improved varieties with better yield, more sweetness and absolutely zero cool factor compared to the scarce original.  But now I have the seeds of four American Persimmons, enough for a grove, and in six or eight years I will let you know how the pudding turns out.