We've finally identified the wild persimmon trees! Our neighbor Dennis told us that we had persimmon trees growing wild, but we had so far been unsuccessful in attempting to identify them. Once they started fruiting Meredithe found one of the trees down in the back by the muscadines. I had cleared out several smaller trees in that area in late winter when I was severely trimming the muscadines and luckily decided to keep a couple of the older trees. This persimmon tree being one of them. Luck. Pure, simple, luck. Now that we know what the leaves and bark look like we can spot them pretty easily and they are EVERYWHERE. I cleaned up 4 more of them down by the front. Peyton, Meredithe and I rescued a larger tree from vines by the driveway leading over to Dennis'.
So what, exactly, is a persimmon you might be asking. Well, they grow to be anywhere from half an inch to four inches across. The one in this picture is young and green and will hopefully ripen to a slightly larger yellow/orange to orange/red fruit. They kinda look like a tomato.
Once they're ripe they're super sweet and soft. You can eat them raw and quartered, or some varieties you may want to peel off the skin first. You could also dry them for storage, or enjoy them cooked. If they're super ripe you can just pop the top off and eat the insides out with a spoon!
