It’s persimmon season, but, natch, nothing doing on my little Nightingale tree, despite a grand show of weird naked-looking flowers in the spring. Two fruits nearly made it to the finish line, but the possums got there first.
Gorgeous as the golden fruits are reputed to be as they hang on the leafless trees, 2016, I have decided, will be the year of picking green. The persimmons may well be mouth-puckeringly unripe but as human overlord of this place, I insist that it is I who will enjoy their high-tannin nastiness, and not some upstart marsupial.
In fact, my tree is an old fashioned astringent persimmon: the fruits need to be “bletted” to go super soft and sweet. This can happen far from fruitflies and other critters, deep in the pantry, in the comforting darkness of a paper bag, with only an ethylene-emitting banana for company. I have days when crawling in next to the banana to be bletted myself sounds like a good gig.
In theory, me and my persimmons can hole out for a few weeks in an undisturbed corner and it should work out delectably for both of us.
But, really, I don’t care! Harvests mean nothing to me! A barren tree is a beautiful tree.
For now, it’s all about the komorebi, a Japanese word I encountered for the first time a few days ago in the marvellous nature blog, Mildly Extreme.
Because who needs food when you can have sunlight filtering through though autumn leaves?*
*Love those leaves… but thank god for the Freemont mandarins…
4 thoughts on “Let them eat light!”
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What beautiful autumn pictures showing komorebi! The colours are gorgeous. Thank you for mentioning my blog. You are kind. I like to share your wonderful blog with others too. As for produce and possums and fruit flies., it’s a never-ending battle here. Most of the time I don’t win, but as you say there is still the thrill of having a backyard that has trees! I hope the persimmons are bletted successfully and taste scrumptious. Bletted is a new word for me! I’ve been told that the old fashioned variety are delicious when they finally reach that stage. I’ve only ever eaten a modern variety which tasted like a sweetish tomato. Make sure you let us know the result. A beautiful and informative post. Thank you. 🙂
Thanks Jane! And thank you for your marvellous blog that inspired me to think about light-sifting-through-leaves. I can’t get enough of it at the moment, although the leaves are rapidly falling now – the last few persimmon leaves fell yesterday. Ah, the passing of time! I have to say I do like the non-astringent persimmons that are crunchy when they’re ripe. However, I thought the astringent ones would be more fruit fly (and possum) resistant! I also have a black pudding tree in, which is another persimmon, although the fruit is rich brownish black rather than golden. It is moving very slowly thanks to a shaded position and periodic scratching up by brush turkeys. I have hopes though, as I absolutely love the fruit! I will let you know if I ever see any action….