As you would expect of a (nearly) 100 year old house, ours has a history. The last 20 years of that history involves being owned by a government agency and used as a half-way house for the reintegration of psychiatric patients back into the community. During that period, the once award winning gardens have been neglected and in some parts, now resemble a jungle.

A chainsaw, some hard work and many trips to the dump will help to rectify that!

But there are a few specimens that will stay to become the basis of the new garden design as we attempt to bring it back to its former glory. And this is one of them.

The colours right now are glorious but judging by the rate they are falling, within a week or so the tree will be stripped bare of all those leaves.

We will also be stripping it of these before the birds decimate the crop.

They are Persimmon. It’s an old fashioned fruit that you don’t see much of these days. I had not tried one myself until a couple of days ago, but oh my!  They are beautiful. Beneath the very smooth skin is a soft flesh with a very delicate, sweet flavour. Apparently they are very good for making jellies but I have seen a few baking recipes for them too.

Within a couple of weeks we will be inundated with them. Persimmon cake anyone?

If you know of any recipes for persimmon, please share them in the comments.