Persimmon Heartbreak

It sounds like the name of a really bad jazz funk album but it's also what I am living with right now. The persimmon tree was doing so great, it's limbs were bending to the ground with supple, bright orange delights .. and then we had an unusually early cold snap. I didn't realize they'd be so susceptible to it but I need to remember I am from the Bay Area, that's where this persimmon passion comes from, and it's warmer there.

In a nutshell, I lost the majority of my persimmons. Serendipitously,  I had harvested a dozen or so just before the big freeze for no other reason than to prevent a branch from snapping off due to so much fruit. Those ones were gorgeous and about 15% of the post freeze fruits were fine, but we took a big hit. If we were farmers and this was the corn harvest for the year that we depended on to keep body and soul together we'd be screwed. Maybe this is nature's way of saying I shouldn't bake so much this holiday season. (that said, if you'd like my family recipe it's at the bottom of this post!

There is another huge silver lining as well, and that's that I learned an important lesson consisting of these points about Fushiya persimmons:
-let the fruit stay on the tree as long as you can, the leaves will fall off but that's normal
-Fushiyas are ripe when you can stick your thumb through the skin if you wanted to (but don't do that because it's gross).
-pick the fruits as soon as the weather calls for extreme cold (close to freezing) just do it, even if they are still hard, as long as they are bright orange.
-put them in a box with a banana or apple and let them ripen in a cool dry place (that the puppies can't access)

This was right before the cold snap did her in...leaves have fallen, fruits look just lovely.

I was holding out hope they'd be ok but even as pulp many did not past muster or live to see a new dawn. So so SO sad.

I have a couple of jars in the freezer and this was the last sad remains of the day, squished just moments before typing this.

first batch of persimmon pudding...note to self, egg whites work just as well if not better than whole eggs. More pudding-like.

Persimmon Pudding 

(from my via my dad circa1969, also thanks to the large persimmon tree behind our house in Oakland that a surly lady let us pick persimmons from every year)

1 cup persimmon pulp (Fushiya VERY ripe big mushy persimmons, not the ones that look like tomatoes)

3/4 cup sugar +more for dried fruits

1 tsp baking soda

 1 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup milk (or sub buttermilk, my pref)

1/4 cup oil

1 cup raisins (or get experimental here with other dried fruits candied in bourbon, sugar etc...hence the extra sugar suggested above)

1 cup nuts optional...i leave the nuts out (hee hee)

Preheat oven to 325...bake in a loaf pan for 1 hour ** set a pan of water on the lower oven shelf whilst baking*** no idea why but it has something to do with the pudding effect.