As my husband and I were traveling along our curvey, wooded subdivison road to our house today we saw a friend out in the woods. We asked him what the heck he was doing and he said he was collecting "persimmons". I had no idea what a persimmion was or what it was just for. (I've since googled...of course...LOL...told you all I am a city girl!) Our friend makes various assortments of wines and that's what he plans to do with these fruits. Once we knew what we were looking for we saw 3 more trees before we got home. Learned something new today...pretty cool!

i sure would not eat a persimmon without a frost. you talking about pucker power!!!!!!!!!!

they use to make the best wood golf club heads out of persimmon but metal woods have replaced them.

william

I sometimes eat poke in the spring. When we moved here when I was 15, we lived on blackberry jam. I would start out careful of snakes then venture in further and further into the brush and brambles to get big juicy ones. Then I would see a harmless green snake and be afraid to come out of the jungle. Ditto the advice on persimmon. I saw a very nasty tempered black snake today. He was on my driveway and I got out to shoo him away. He raised up his head and acted very hostile. At first he had ripples in his body. Then when I disturbed him he smoothed out. Can anyone explain this? Click to enlarge.

Helen - I think you scared the poor thing. lol Cool photo.
I remember my mother trying different greens like poke, lamb's quarters and dandylion greens but maybe they weren't very good because we didn't have them more than once or twice that I remember. Poke requires a boil, rinse, boil, rinse cycle so it won't make you sick I believe. So does milkweed. I've read that you can eat the shoots from common milkweed when they first come up in the spring if you cook them correctly. Has anyone tried that? Tastes like asparagus? lol

I didn't know you could make wine with persimmons. If you search on persimmons in this forum, you can probably find a post about how to predict the coming winter by cutting them open and looking inside. : )

I would be afraid to eat milkweed because they always say that is what protects the Monarchs - the poison from their food. I like poke with bacon and I only rinse it once. I sort of carve it and then once I eat it that is enough until next spring. I use only the new sprouts that have just come up. Be careful with anything that looks like a carrot. The poison hemlock that grows by the creek looks similar to parsnips and carrots.

I freeze several bags of poke each spring. I just blanch it and chill and freeze. If I find lambs quarter close, I use it just like fresh spinach. Mom used to boil her poke in soda water....I never do that and I am still kicking.

The only ones I am sure of are poke, lambs quarter, and narrow leaf dock and dandelions. Mom used to pick one called mouse ears.

Our persimmon trees are hanging full, but seem small and aren't nearly ripe yet. I need to look up how
to make the wine. I have made persimmon bread, not really crazy about it.

I can remember picking hazel nuts, but haven't seen any of those for years. I plan to order some next year from MDC.
We harvested our walnut trees so I don't know if we have any left big enough to produce nuts and I have some hickory trees. Usually the squirrels beat me to those.

Have any of you ever dried chicory roots? I want to try that sometime too.

This grove of persimmon trees is in the far west lot and right by the road where we walk each morning.

You will have enough to make lots of wine! Do you have racoons? They like them.

Poor black snake, just catching some rays and gets disturbed. I too think that he was scared. I have seen black snakes lying rippled up like that before.

It is an old wives tale that persimmons have to be frosted to sweeten up but it's not true. Persimmons just need a long time to mature, and most years they don't get it til after a frost. But if a frost delays til late Nov early Dec as it has some recent years you can eat persimmons before frost.

I boil poke just once for about 5 min in plenty of water, pour off the water and then scramble it with eggs. I like it but my California raised husband doesn't. He will eat lambsquarters though, especially if I mix it with spinach. Watercress is one of my favorite spring greens. I eat it raw after washing well in water with a dab of bleach and then rinsing and when I can get enough I steam it or scramble with eggs. I like all the wild fruits, blackberry, mulberry, wild grape, wild cherry, mayapple, passionfruit, persimmon, but only eat them raw in moderation because so many wild animals depend on them. This year though I hope to make persimmon bread, which I like, expecially with black walnuts.

A little bleach is a good idea for watercress. I used to eat it from the spring, but not from the creek because of concerns about the water not being clean enough. I have never cooked it, but a little is good in salads. Have you ever eaten the snail eggs by mistake.

Mulberryknob - Is it wild black cherries that you eat and do you have to do anything special to those? I'm scared to try them since the wilted branches are so toxic to cattle.

The wind today is really bringing down the walnuts.

Mom used to just wilt watercress like leaf lettuce with bacon and onions.

Thanks for the tip on bleach...I never thought of doing that.
The cattle have access to where the watercress is growing some years.

I am less afraid of eating things from the wild than I am eating greens from the stores!

Has anyone made any wines from wild things? I want to try persimmon this year.

I grew up eating Poke Salad with fried eggs and bacon drippings on it. We also ate hazel nuts, wild blackberries and Muskydimes (spelled wrong). My grandfather made wine from them.

Some of our persimmons are ripe and falling off the trees already - not a bad crop this year. Black walnuts are pretty thick this year, too. We have loads of wild blackberries in the freezer from earlier this summer, even some wild raspberries. We have lots of poke as well, but I'm not so inclined to eat it...

seedsonshirt, try mixing it with spinach or lambs quarter. If you like greens at all, I think you will enjoy it.

Christie--yes, wild black cherries are good, a little bit tart but definitely cherry tasting. In the past I have picked a grocery sack full, washed them and froze them raw. I do elderberries the same way. Then in the middle of the winter if someone gets the sniffles I boil water, turn off the fire and dump black cherries and elderberries in to steep for several minutes. Then smash em with a potato masher, strain through a colander, add lemon and honey. I suppose this is more medicine than food. I don't like elderberries raw, but I do like to eat a few raw black cherries out of hand. I know the wilted leaves are toxic to livestock but have never had any bad effects from the fruit.