Friday, November 20, 2020

Looking For Persimmons in NW Arkansas

 

Good Morning Friends! How's everyone holding up? We're all doing well. Jamie is still working from home (going on nine months now!) but, other than that, the big things in life have been relatively normal. We've just gone on holiday break so I'm hoping for a lot more time to read, write, and create over these next couple months. We shall see...

Last year on my birthday (October 23) we discovered a persimmon tree near our property. Do you know about the South's legend of the persimmon seed? Well you're about to be educated! This season we got back to it a little late but we did happen to spy a couple fruit left on the very bare branches!

We started by shaking the tree real hard---one fell down. Then I grabbed the stick from Selah and went after the other one. It was a team effort but we managed to snag those last two.

The legend says one can tell what kind of winter is coming by slicing open the seed of a persimmon and seeing what shape is inside.

Here's Liam's (10) explanation: "So if you find a persimmon, this is what to do: so wash and dry the seeds. Then cut it open. If it's a fork, you will have a warm winter; if a spoon, lots of snow; if a knife, a cold winter."

We cut open these three seeds and saved the rest so the kids could try to grow one in our yard. The general consensus was that the majority of these are spoons. 

Kynthia (9) drew this diagram of the steps to making it to the inside of the seed. She came up with this idea so she wouldn't have to ask me how to spell everything---ha! Very smart!

Here is Avalon's (11) journal entry: "Me, my siblings, and Mom all found two persimmons, and nine seeds and the majority of the seeds were spoons. Hopefully the legend is true!"

Brenna (7) is really really hoping for some cold weather and snow this year. Me too!