Posted: 12/17/2024 8:37:54 PM EDT
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Clearing some of my fenceline the past couple of days and I discovered a number of these trees. Most of them small, transplantable size but a few that are definitely mature trees like 12 to 15 feet tall. I'll leave those big ones and just work around them. I was just kind of shocked to find something wild and native in south Texas that likes alkaline soil, produces (theoretically) edible fruit, doesn't have spines, thorns, or hooks all over it, and seems to tolerate drought well. I've never tried any persimmon tho. Texas or otherwise. Are they any good? Or is it edible in the sense that it won't kill you? |
Never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be. - Adm James Stockdale
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Originally Posted By Oldgold: Delicious, but don’t eat them until after the first frost. Animals love them also. Yeah, I might replant some further in field to replace some of the hackberries I cut down. I know the critters were eating the berries from those. Also, what's a "frost?" 
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Never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be. - Adm James Stockdale
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Originally Posted By -Kyuss-: NC, way green is the way to go. They'll make your asshole pucker. Everything I'm reading online says not to eat the green ones. Enough tannins to make your stomach upset. Though I guess that means you could include one or two green ones for the tannin content if you were making wine or something. I believe these Texas ones are dark black when ripe. I'll get some good pics of some of the bigger trees tomorrow. |
Never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be. - Adm James Stockdale
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Originally Posted By 1Andy2: Everything I'm reading online says not to eat the green ones. Enough tannins to make your stomach upset. Though I guess that means you could include one or two green ones for the tannin content if you were making wine or something. I believe these Texas ones are dark black when ripe. I'll get some good pics of some of the bigger trees tomorrow. We had a good few on the farm when I was growing up. Sour as hell. My Grandad told me not to eat them green, I was dumb enough to go against his advice and do just that. He was a damn smart man, I was a kid with a mission. I lost, over and over again. |
Find around and fuck out.
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We have them on our property in Oklahoma. I just harvested a couple of bags at my dad's request a few weeks ago. He saw a Youtube video of a guy making some kind of bread pudding with some fancy store-bought seedless orange-sized persimmons and thought he'd give it a try with our wild persimmons. My dad aborted when he saw all of the seeds he had to contend with. Pic taken in October - not quite ready:  Pic taken Thanksgiving week with fat hand for scale: 
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Never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be. - Adm James Stockdale
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This brings the known list of native trees I've found here, in no particular order: Huisache Mesquite Live Oak Knockaway/anacua Hackberry Granejo (spiny hackberry) Catclaw Lime pricklyash Texas persimmon Mulberry And then there's some kind of ash-looking tree with tiny leaves that I'm not sure exactly what it is. Very straight growing central trunk. Gets pretty tall for south Texas. |
Never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be. - Adm James Stockdale
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Originally Posted By 1Andy2: This brings the known list of native trees I've found here, in no particular order: Huisache Mesquite Live Oak Knockaway/anacua Hackberry Granejo (spiny hackberry) Catclaw Lime pricklyash Texas persimmon Mulberry And then there's some kind of ash-looking tree with tiny leaves that I'm not sure exactly what it is. Very straight growing central trunk. Gets pretty tall for south Texas. I had a knack for finding catclaw in the SW. Absolutely gross stuff.  I'd rather deal with cholla. I can't think of a more hit-or-miss fruit I've ever had than persimmon. When it's ripe, it's great, but that window is very narrow. |
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"Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods." -H.L. Mencken
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Originally Posted By lew: I had a knack for finding catclaw in the SW. Absolutely gross stuff. I'd rather deal with cholla. I can't think of a more hit-or-miss fruit I've ever had than persimmon. When it's ripe, it's great, but that window is very narrow. Originally Posted By lew: Originally Posted By 1Andy2: This brings the known list of native trees I've found here, in no particular order: Huisache Mesquite Live Oak Knockaway/anacua Hackberry Granejo (spiny hackberry) Catclaw Lime pricklyash Texas persimmon Mulberry And then there's some kind of ash-looking tree with tiny leaves that I'm not sure exactly what it is. Very straight growing central trunk. Gets pretty tall for south Texas. I had a knack for finding catclaw in the SW. Absolutely gross stuff. I'd rather deal with cholla. I can't think of a more hit-or-miss fruit I've ever had than persimmon. When it's ripe, it's great, but that window is very narrow. Yeah, catclaw forces me to wear long sleeves when I'm doing this stuff. And it just loves to grow up in fences or right next to other trees I might want to keep. The pricklyash isn't real fun, either. But at least the pointy bits on it aren't curved hooks like the catclaw. Really makes me appreciate these persimmons. Even if I never or rarely get any fruit off them they'll still be worthwhile. I think the tree itself is kind of pretty in a rugged sort of way. Kind of reminds me of a gnarly olive tree. |
Never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be. - Adm James Stockdale
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Perhaps a dumb question... but if I try to root a cutting from a female tree, will the cutting root as a female tree? Or does it not work that way? I know these trees have male and female trees and only the females produce fruit. From what I'm reading, only about 1 in 10 trees is female, too. I'm not a botanist |
Never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be. - Adm James Stockdale
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I have one on my property. I’ve tried them at every stage of ripeness and just don’t like them. The deer, however, absolutely love them. |
“Once, men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.”
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Long taproot. Attached File Attached File Attached File We'll see how well this works |
Never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be. - Adm James Stockdale
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Back home from work... and we have little babby persimmons!Attached File Attached File |
Never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be. - Adm James Stockdale
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Originally Posted By Oldgold: Delicious, but don’t eat them until after the first frost. Animals love them also. This, very astringent. I've even found them after the first snow, you will be competing with the deer and squirrels for them. Persimmon cookies and bread are very good. |
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We have a couple in the ditch along the fence behind the house, the fruit never lasts long enough to get ripe, everything from roadrunners to raccoons eats them. None of them are over 15' tall. Some hill country winery was popular for persimmon wine, I was not brave enough.
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They're starting to turn darker green. Regarding bodark, yeah... I think I'm a bit too south for that. |
Never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be. - Adm James Stockdale
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lol, sumbitches Just checked and there's a handful of green ones, a couple of half eaten ripe remains, and one little ripe one that probably fell off the tree 5 minutes prior. Attached File Attached File Attached File I guess the critters are fast |
Never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be. - Adm James Stockdale