Seventeen persimmons on the American Persimmon tree planted in the spring of 2009. Exciting! I am going to attempt some persimmon pudding. The persimmon is a bit out of its range here, but so far, so good. We have a few smaller Asian persimmons planted, I don’t know if the American and the Asian pollinate each other but the American is self fruitful. The Asian fruit look different, more acorn shaped and less squashed tomato shape. Dried persimmon leaf tea is reported to be very delicious and high in vitamin C, best gathered in the summer. Would you like to try a cup?

No clouds are in the morning sky,
The vapors hug the stream,
Who says that life and love can die
In all this northern gleam?

At every turn the maples burn,
The quail is whistling free,
The partridge whirs, and the frosted burrs
Are dropping for you and me.

Ho! hilly ho! heigh O!
Hilly ho!
In the clear October morning.

Along our paths the woods are bold,
And glow with ripe desire;
The yellow chesnut showers its gold,
The sumachs spread their fire;

The breezes feel as crisp as steel,
The buckwheat tops are red:
Then down the lane, Love, scurry again,
And over the stubble tread?

Ho! hilly ho! heigh O!
Hilly ho!
In the clear October morning.

a poem that suits the day, it was written about the time the farm house was being built, by Edmund Clarence Stedman

The chestnuts are ripe and falling from their husks. The farm has 9 chestnut trees planted a few years after our arrival, some are Chinese and some are the Dunstan hybrid. The Dunstan hybrid is a blight resistant cross of the American and the Chinese chestnut. There is not a whole lot of difference between the taste, the Dunstans seem starchier to me. The Dunstans are ripe earlier and they are browner in color and somewhat smaller. Chestnuts are rich in the monounsaturated fats oleic acid and palmitoleic acid, known to lower LDL cholesterol, they’re rich in the B vitamins thiamine, riboflavin and niacin and a source of calcium, iron and phosphorous. This year was a very good year, the branches loaded and hanging on the ground. We took some to the market this week, and despite the cold rainy day and lack of market shoppers we managed to sell some. I kept imagining how well they could sell if we had a mechanism there to cook them and had a young chap to loudly chant- hot roasted chestnuts!!