joy in the Mornings

I was very excited yesterday to discover that I have persimmon trees along the back property line of my 1 1/2 acre. I believe there are three trees.

I found them quite by accident. I’ve lived here for six years and never realized - before now - that they were here.

Last Sunday we had nasty windstorms that were blown in by the remnants of Hurricane Ike. The wind was terrible - blowing every direction. It knocked huge limbs out of our trees and in other spots around the area it toppled trees and power lines. There were a number of people without power for awhile.

Thankfully, we just had lots of large limbs down - no full trees.

The wind apparently blew around several small twigs from these persimmon trees and I found persimmons all over the back part of the yard. Most were green, but the few I found on the ground that were ripe had become snacks for squirrels or coons.

I set out yesterday to find the trees and after a little research and following the persimmon trail I hit pay dirt! It looks as though there are three of them. They are on the property line between us and a neighbor and it looks as though two of the trees are on our side.

So now I’m hunting down recipes for persimmons, and since I’ve been researching weather lore for another project, I had to check out the persimmon forecast.

The lore states that if you slice open a persimmon seed, you’ll be able to determine the coming winter. If you see a knife, it means the winter will be cuttingly cold. If you see a spoon, it means there will be heavy snow. If you see a fork, it means the winter will be mild and there will be little snow.

I plan to cut open more seeds to see what they show, but so far of the ones I’ve cut open, the persimmons say we will have lots of snow this winter.

You guessed it - I saw a spoon!