Harvesting our Persimmons

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We were very lucky our persimmon tree in our garden yielded so many persimmons this season. The tree is right in the middle of our butterfly garden, and it is not unusual to see hummingbirds flying around the tree during the summer.  At the end of October, we had a few days with temperatures nearing the freezing mark. Since we had so many persimmons we did not want to lose to the freeze, we harvested them. The persimmons were difficult to reach and could not be plucked easily from the branches. The tree isn't very tall, so we helped a student gingerly step through our butterfly garden and gave him a boost up to a low branch.  He was able to reach and drop all of the persimmons to students waiting below.

We collected approximately 60 persimmons. They are sold in area stores for about 2.00 each so the students could see that we had about $120.00 worth of fruit!

Originally, we had planned to let the fruit ripen, and let students taste the delicious fruit at school. But, Thanksgiving break was around the corner, we were afraid the fruit would ripen while we were on vacation. So, we decided to draw names from our MVP can.

(M:Moves and stays active, V:Values healthy eating, P:Practices healthy habits)

The lucky students would get to take home the fruit in a brown paper bag with information about the fruit and when it would be ready to eat.  Many students have never tasted persimmons, so Ms. Southwick will have ripe persimmons for students to taste after Thanksgiving. Students have fun trying fruits they have never heard of before or have never had the opportunity to try.

                                                      Packaging the persimmons

                  2 of the lucky winners