What do you do with 5 Wild Persimmons?

Just to be sure,  I checked the Persimmon jam recipe again.  Yep, it calls for 5 CUPS of pureed wild persimmons, not 5 persimmons.  I look at my meager  wild harvest and ponder.  What was I going to do with 5 persimmons?  Too many and too beautiful to throw away, too few to be really useful.

I could show them to the grandkids (less than enthusiastic response). I could make 2 tablespoons jam (too much trouble for too little reward). I could paint them (fun! but I still ended up with 5 persimmons, each of which is larger than a grape but smaller than a golf ball.)  I could give them to my friend who has a country house called Persimmon Farm but she, too, is crafty and would want to DO something with them and what do you do with 5 wild persimmons?

I know! Write and illustrate a children’s book.  Five persimmons sitting on a tree.  One fell off and then there were…..But then I’d still be stuck with 5 wild persimmons.

Just eating them is not an option.   Wild persimmons are NOT one of those fruits you want to eat right off the tree unless they are perfectly ripe.  And they are only perfectly ripe for about 2 hours before they begin to go bad. Unripe (which 4 out of 5 of mine were)  wild persimmons are one of the tartest fruits known to exist.  These are cousin to but distinctly different from the sweet, plump Asian persimmon available in the store, which thankfully have a longer “perfectly ripe” life span.

I could make a fall arrangement with them.  Unquestionably,  wild persimmons are some of fall’s most beautiful fruits.  A lovely deep orange color, they are like Christmas tree ornaments on a tree whose leaves are a matching hue.  But after a few days, I’d just be stuck with 5 rotten wild persimmons.

In the end, I used them as a centerpiece for the dinner table, then created a water color painting to give to my friend with Persimmon Farm, then extracted the juice from my persimmons, chopped up pears and added enough sweetener to make a surprisingly delicious Persimmon / Pear sauce.  While working on the sauce, I made up a story about the persimmon tree to tell the grandchildren,  Ahh, Mission accomplished.  Now I can sleep tonight knowing that 5 persimmons harvested from the woods near Lake Lanier have not gone to waste.