Fall gold ii/ii

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"Dymple Green thinks Mitchell's festival may have something to do with the weird geographical fame enjoyed by the persimmon.

"Green is the maker of Dymple's Delight persimmon pulp and probably the only person in the world making a viable living off native wild persimmons. She lives outside Mitchell and pays local persimmon picker-uppers by the pound.

"Persimmon gatherers - mostly retired people and some farmers - visit her every day with new batches of persimmons. One has brought as much as a ton of persimmons in a season, though this year is extremely light. Dymple processes the pulp the day she gets it, canning some and freezing some, before shipping it all over the world."

"Others who try to make their living selling persimmons do it with Oriental persimmons, which have more commercial appeal. They are large - sometimes as large as a bell pepper - solid pulp and sometimes seedless. Although they can be expensive, a cup-sized fruit will yield a cup of pulp. Some can be eaten like a mango. Some have no astringency, and some are seedless. The Orientals are the persimmons we often see in the supermarket.

"Harold McGee, author of 'The Curious Cook,' says an Oriental persimmon has 'generically fruit flavor, plenty sweet but otherwise a little insipid.' However, he concedes that other palates - notably those of the Japanese, who annually polish off more than 450,000 tons of persimmons - might perceive the flavor as delicate and highly desirable.

"If you risk the wilds of farm meadows to search for your persimmons, be assured that you can collect them without waiting for the frost.

Common wisdom tells us that the frost turns the astringency to sweetness, but common wisdom can misinform." "Different varieties of persimmons ripen at different times: some ripen at the end of September while others hang on the tree into November.

"Most people, like Barker, pick them up off the ground. The ones that are soft inside with skins intact are preferred. But even those with broken skins don't seem to interest insects - instead, you'll be fighting opossums and raccoons for the take. It's fun to pick persimmons up and easy to quickly fill a gallon basket with them.

"'It's an obsession,' Barker said. 'It's like finding Easter eggs - you just can't quit picking them up.'" "'Until you get to grinding them up,' cautioned Barker's husband Allan, who's usually pressed into service.

"Processing wild persimmons isn't difficult, though Allan Barker is right - it's tedious. Once you've rinsed them, put them through a Foley food mill or other gadget that will hold the seeds and skins behind and puree the pulp.

"If you're like Barker, you'll make a pudding and some cookies and freeze the rest of the pulp in 2-cup measures to use throughout the fall for other recipes..."

From Food Editor Sarah Fritschner's 10/12/94"Fall Gold: Persimmons Ripen into Sweet Treats This Time of Year, and Gathering Them is Easy (and Free)" article in "The (Louisville, KY) Courier-Journal." Pp.

C1, C6. Posted by Cathy Harned. Submitted By CATHY HARNED On 10-24-94

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