Winter is i-cumen in
Winter came early this year, but the winter fruits have only just truly arrived. Medlars and persimmons have been decorating my kitchen and lounge for a couple of weeks, taunting me with the cold.
As a child I learned how to be patient with persimmons, how to wait for that precise instant when all the foul astringency has magically transmuted into fragrant patterned jelly. This year I couldn’t wait. We’ve had below zero temperatures for a month and I wanted the fruit to match the weather. The result was a mouth that puckered for a day and a half and a brain that wondered how the transmutation happened.
Medlars don’t go sweet. They go spicy. Date and apples and cinnamon, all together. My first medlars are only a day away and there’s only a small bowl of them. The rest are doing a different kind of transmutation, into liqueur for 2009 and beyond.
I don’t understand why the fruits of the bitter dark are so much more bright and tempting than then ones of summer. I adore stone fruits, and one of the great joys of the hot season are the melons. The persimmons of this world are more evocative, though, and make me feel that winter really is worth it. As long as my toes and fingers and ears are warm and there is a bowl of gold fruit, gently softening and sweetening, I’m happy in this season.
My secret might be the liqueurs I made last year. Or they might be the secret stash of summer-dried plums I have waiting for the bitterest and darkest month of all. Or it might just be that certain foods make me very, very happy.
June 11th, 2008 at 5:25 am
I’ve gone a bit crazy for the new variety of persimmons - the ones that you can eat firm. Yum! If you do feel like the soothing jelly like fruit, perhaps for breakfast, stirred through some good yoghurt with honey, you can still let them age.
June 11th, 2008 at 5:41 am
I like all varieties of persimmons. I like spooning them as jelly and muching on them like apples. The only thing I don’t like is the skin.