Persimmons are ripe!

Yesterday at work, we took some people from the Maryland Department of the Environment and the Environmental Protection Agency out to see some of our restoration projects. Our friend Jason from the Division of Parks and Recreation drove the van and took us on a tour at Libertytown Park, where he is the Foreman. We have done a number of projects with him there including two rain gardens, a large tree planting, and a smaller tree planting with larger "parklike" trees. Jason told us that the persimmons were ripe, since they had gotten a good frost, and he shook a few tree limbs so that people could taste them. Read here to see what happens when you eat an unripe persimmon >:p We got to share the fruit of our native trees with the grantors that have given us almost a million dollars over a number of years to do watershed planning, create the Monocacy and Catoctin Watershed Alliance, do restoration projects, and plant native trees- really cool. We have wild, native persimmon trees in Frederick County. The fruits of these trees are usually about an inch in diameter with several large seeds. The fruit is pasty and sweet like dates, with a spicy flavor that is not unlike cooked pumpkin, though it has different nuances and an astringent aftertaste. There are lots of these trees around- we also have a bunch at Utica Park. Why not try this delicious wild food?

Shannon