A few weeks ago, I mentioned a failed nature post. I had intended to write about persimmons and winter weather, but we had a little obstacle, which will be explained later. As I used to tell my students, however, we can't give up! Be persistent and persevere! That's what I did and, finally, I am able to share the nature lesson.
This is one of the persimmon trees in the woods behind our home. The deer adore the sweet, thick fruit when it ripens early autumn. I have read that persimmons reach their height of flavor after the first frost and although we haven't had a frost yet, some of the fruit is falling. Those persimmons hanging from the lower branches have been consumed by our deer friends! I picked some of the fruit a few weeks ago and then we had the roadblock.
As you know, folklore states that one is able to predict the winter weather by splitting open a persimmon seed. We often did this when I was growing up and I also have shared this lesson with my classes over the year. Within each seed is the outline of a white fleshy utensil. Interpretations vary a bit from source to source and even region to region. We always learned that knives indicate that a cold winter is coming because the cold and wind will cut through! Spoons foretell of a winter with a surplus of snow as one will need to spoon it or shovel a lot. Forks let us know that the approaching winter will have little snow, or powdery precipitation, with a mild season. Splitting a seed is not always easy and I will admit that it takes a bit of time and caution (due to the use of serrated knives---one slip and you can cut your fingers). The two of us worked on this task when I was originally writing the post and while we were, eventually, successful in opening seeds, the fleshy pulp was not at all well-defined. I wasn't sure if it was the tree or the fact that it was still early and perhaps the pulps hadn't fully formed. My parents found a persimmon tree in one of our local conservation areas when they were there to see some fall color and were kind enough to gather some fruit for me. Randy and I tried it again and this time it worked! They were all spoons. The white half-circle on the right side is just a discoloration of the flesh and isn't associated with the spoon shape in the center. This one was the best for photography purposes and not all spoons have the slight point on the top. I rather think that I nicked that end when I was getting it apart.
What do you think? If you live in this area, are you ready for snow? Has anyone observed the wooly worm (caterpillars)? Their bands of colored stripes are supposed to be fortuitous. I guess we have no choice but to wait and see!