THE FOLKLORE OF PLANTS: Persimmon

Lisa Karen Miller

           People have used persimmons for centuries to predict the severity of the coming winter. Split open a locally grown persimmon (if you buy it at a grocery, it came from somewhere else and won’t predict local weather) and look at the shape inside.  If it looks like a spoon, there will be a lot of snow.  A fork predicts a mild winter, while a knife foretells bitter cold and winds that will “cut like a knife.”

          Anyone who has ever bitten into an unripe persimmon will never forget it.  It seems to suck all the moisture out of your mouth, leaving a cottony feeling that persists for several minutes.

          Ripe ones make delicious jam, pie, bread, muffins, and cookies. The taste is similar to that of an apricot, with a pudding-like texture. They can be sliced fresh onto green salads, and go particularly well with watercress.

          The fruit is actually the berry of the genus Diospyros, and has been called the Divine Fruit. Native to China, it has been cultivated for thousands of years in both China and Japan.  The first cultivars from these countries were introduced into the United States in 1870.  

          The American persimmon, Diospyros virginiana, also called the Common Persimmon, is grown from Florida to Connecticut, west to Iowa and south to Texas. Most of the commercial production, however, takes place in California.  

          The earliest mention of our native persimmon appears in the journals of Hernando de Soto, during his expeditions into the southeastern parts of what is now America. He reports they are a tasty fruit made into a bread by Native Americans. They were taken to Europe in the 17^th century, where their propagation was encouraged.

          American pioneers made both wine and beer from the fruit.  In 1773, Flemish naturalist Pehr Kalm wrote, “Persimmon beer is reckoned much preferable to other beer.”  It was so common by the next century it had earned a nickname – possum toddy. Possums were often to be found up persimmon trees in the fall, feasting on the fruit.

          A rather curious use of the hard and durable seeds was as buttons. During the Civil War, it was reported in the Atlanta Daily Intelligencer, “If you use them for buttons, the washer woman will hardly break them with her battling stick.”

          Persimmon wood is considered to be among the hardest of North American trees, and was popular for making golf club heads and pool cues, before these were made with modern, manufactured materials.

          Find yourself a wild persimmon tree this fall (they grow in hedgerows along open fields) and see what the winter will hold.

© Copyright 2023 Lisa Karen Miller