There must be a hundred (100 metric) persimmon trees on this place. They produce the tiniest fruit in the late autumn months, golf ball-sized and so sweet it’s almost sinful. But you have to wait till the fruit falls to the ground; if you pick it off the tree, it’s very puckery astringent and quite bitter. During the off-season, while the trees are starting to produce their new crop of leaves, they make the best whole-body back scratchers as shown here.
When the fruit is on the ground, the horses gather and try to find it. I think they must be color blind, because they have to sniff around, and can go right past a persimmon without finding it. The round shape of the bright orange fruit must look like the rounded leaves they’re lying on. If I’m caught in the act of picking up persimmons, the horses mob me. Gotta be careful around giants that can bite!
1 comment:
Your backyard is sure different to my backyard. Instead of giants that bite, I have small furry creatures that rub around my legs (cats) or jump up for a pat (dog). Instead of back scratching trees, I have rose bushes that grab and dig in, strangler vines that try to pull anything growing taller than they are down, and sneaky 'rubbish' trees that spring up in garden beds and impersonate 'good' trees for awhile, till we chop them down. At night we have large spiders that spin webs across all of our habitual pathways and make coming home after dark a real adventure.
I do like the idea of having a back scratching persimmon tree around. Maybe when we move into our next house I'll see if they can grow in that garden and plant one.
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