To: Homestead List <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: [Homestead] A day of Surprises
Date: Thu, 05 Oct 2006 00:43:40 -0400
(This was crossposted to several lists. My apologies to those of you
who are seeing it more than once.)
This morning, my friend and neighbor called and asked me if she could
put her 3 horses and donkey back into my pasture for a few weeks. We
went down to her place, almost 2 miles down the road, and walked the
horses back to my place. It was a beautiful day here in NW Georgia, and
it was really nice to get out and walk the hills and woods between here
and there. The leaves on the trees are just starting to show some
color, and Fall is in the air. Once we got here, I was standing next to
the pasture fence, near a little clump of trees, and suddenly something
hit me in the head. I reached up and felt something slimy on the top
of my head and almost immediately knew that it was a persimmon. I had
found a new persimmon tree, quite by accident! Anyway, it was sweet and
ripe so I walked across the pasture to check the persimmons on a tree
that I knew existed, and I have never seen so many persimmons in my
life! The tree was loaded! So now, I'll be making persimmon bread
soon. Recipe is below. I collected a shirtfull of persimmons, brought
them in and removed the seeds. That's more seeds for my tree nursery,
and I'll scatter some around the property in various places.
Persimmon Hickory Nut Bread
1 cup persimmon pulp, seeds removed
2 cups AP flour, sifted
1 tsp baking soda, sifted with the flour
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup sugar
12 TBSP butter (1 and 1/2 sticks)
1/2 c chopped nuts (hickory or pecans if the squirrels beat you to the
hickories)
In a medium bowl, cream sugar and butter. Add the eggs and beat until
creamy. Add the sifted flour and stir until moistened and relatively
smooth. Add persimmons and then nuts. Stir well and pour batter into a
greased and floured loaf pan. Bake for about an hour at 325 degrees or
until toothpick comes out clean and bread pulls away from the sides of
the pan.