Persimmons are ripening fast and furiously around here. The thing with persimmons is once they are ripe, they fall and if you don’t get them quickly, they’re mush. You’ve really got to like dealing with that mushiness tendency if you want the tastiest fruit.
I am so fortunate to have friends with different persimmon varieties. Fortunately, they all are more than willing to share. I’ve even located a rogue tree in my dentist’s parking lot. I just gotta’ get my tree climbing skills primed in order to get the good ones.
Hmmm. That probably isn’t going to happen, y’all.
We’re all a little concerned around here. All the persimmon seeds we’ve split are showing spoons…and we’ve been through a bunch of seeds. You know what that means, don’t you. If the tale holds true, the prediction is for a winter of heavy snow.
Yiks! We’re not exactly prepared for heavy snow in Arkansas, y’all. I mean, if we get a flake or two around here, we close the schools and shut the doors on WalMart (well…maybe not that drastic, but…). You’d think we were really and truly snowbound.
But all in all, I’d rather have spoons than knives. Winter is not my friend and when it’s cutting cold and the skies are gray day in and day out, I just plain get in a foul mood.
And I’d rather have spoons than forks. If I’m gonna’ have snow, I want pretty snow that I can play in, build snowmen in and have a good excuse for making snow ice cream in. If it’s a dry snow, it’s just pretty for a bit before it blows away. It’s too dry for building snowmen and there’s not a snowball’s chance of having a good ol’ snowball fight.
Any way, take that sweet and delicious persimmon pulp and put it to good use by making up a batch of this persimmon jam. When the snow falls, make you up a batch of buttermilk biscuits and slather ’em with butter and this absolutely yummy persimmon jam.
Ingredients
- 4 cups persimmon puree
- 7 cups granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 1 Tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1 packet Certo liquid pectin
Instructions
- Prepare jars, lids and rings for processing. Keep jars warm in the oven while preparing the jam
- In a large stockpot over medium heat, stir together the persimmon puree, sugar, lemon juice and butter
- Allow this mixture to cook until thickened, about 20-30 minutes. (You are NOT following the directions on the Certo package.)
- When thickened to about the consistency of honey, stir in liquid pectin and bring mixture to a slow boil.
- Cook for approximately 1 1/2 - 2 minutes; remove from heat and ladle into jars.
- Wipe the rims of the jars, seal and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes for 4-ounce jars and 15 minutes for 1/2-pint jars.
