Persimmons

About a year ago or so, our next door neighbor told us there was a persimmon tree in our woods. When we first went looking for it, it was surrounded by brush, shrubs, and smaller trees. We didn't do anything about it that year, but this year, I cleared out around it. Starting at the end of October, I was rewarded with a few persimmon fruits.

Ours is a native persimmon tree, Diospyros virginiana, commonly known as American persimmon. Smaller and seedier than the commercially grown Japanese persimmon, Diospyros kaki, they are nonetheless considered "best" by Joy of Cooking authors, Irma Rombauer and Marion Becker. So they say in their persimmon pudding recipe anyway. Hopefully that makes up for the extra work it takes to extract the pulp from them.

From the looks of things on the ground around the tree, persimmons are a great favorite of our local wildlife. Even without the competition, my chances of getting very many seemed slim, considering that it's a mature tree and all the persimmons are waaaaaay up there.

Dan brought out the extension ladder and managed to shake a few more out of the tree. I ran these through my Foley food mill, but much of the pulp clung to the seeds so that I didn't feel I was getting much. I froze what I could, and added a little more every couple of days. I learned to go persimmon gathering in the late afternoon, as there would be nothing but discarded seeds if I went in the morning.

According to Slow Food USA, the anglicized word “Persimmon” is derived from an Algonquin word which means "dried fruit". The seeds are sometimes roasted to make a beverage similar to coffee. Here in Appalachia, the dried seeds are said to be brewed to make beer, though I've never heard of anybody doing that. The pulp can be used a lot of ways, including breads, cakes, cookies, pies, puddings, muffins, ice cream, sherbets, butters, jams, jellies, and fruit leather. Persimmon pulp can be dehydrated, canned or frozen.

By the end of November I had nearly 4 cups of pulp the freezer. At the top of my list is a persimmon pie! More on that soon.

Persimmons © December 2011 by Leigh
at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

My Best Fall Garden Ever

The last time I showed you my fall garden, things were coming along pretty well. With plenty of rain, and nothing worse than a few killing frosts, it's thriving.

Fall garden & a wheelbarrow load of leaf mulch

This has been the best fall garden I've ever planted. Not everything that I planted came up, and some of it came up sporadically, but what has, is doing well.

Broccoli, needing thinning.

I admit I've neglected it because of the kitchen remodeling project. It needs weeding and mulching. And thinning.

Garlic. I planted about 100 cloves.

This is the most garlic I've ever planted, about 100 cloves. I've been increasing our garlic every year, saving and replanted all I grow. My eventual goal is to grow a year's worth with some to spare. Maybe next year?

Cabbage collards in front, turnips in back.

I planted both collard seed, and cabbage collard plants. The collards were mainly for the goats, though we've eaten them as well. The cabbage collards though, are tastier.

Kale in foreground, beets (left) & collards (right) behind.

The beets survived the deer, maybe because I covered them at night for awhile. My buckwheat was completely demolished by them however. I was able to collect about a pint of seed and dry one cutting for the goats.

Parsnips growing in front, collards behind

This is the first year I've had parsnips come up, and I'm happy about that. I've also had some flowers survive several frosts, calendula.

Calendula (pot marigold) have survived a few frosts

The green you see in the background of some of the garden photos, is our winter wheat. I planted a small patch last year, and this year I bought 50 pounds to plant. That should have been enough for about half an acre, according to Gene Logsdon, but I planted thickly and used up 46 pounds before I got that half acre covered. So far it's doing beautifully.

Winter wheat

I think it worked out well that I didn't plant the entire half acre. This way we'll be able to plant corn in the spring without having to rush to get the wheat harvested first.

As you can see, I've begun the job of mulching everything. My preferred leaf mulch is from our pecan, hickory, maple, and dogwood trees. These are calcium accumulators, and my garden could certainly use the calcium from their decomposing leaves. I also plan to pile the unplanted beds with all the leaves I rake. It's a wonderful way to spend those mild autumn days.

My Best Fall Garden Ever © December 2011 by Leigh at http://my5acredream.blogspot.com/

Our Dippy Kitchen Floor

I mentioned, when I showed you our new ceiling beams, that our kitchen ceiling dipped in several places. Well, the floor is the same way. There are several dips actually, but the worst one is in the middle of the room, and is 3/4 inch lower than the walls on both sides.

It took a 3/4 inch thick piece of flooring (left) to bring it up to level

Of itself, this might not be too bad; it could be shimmed and a new floor installed on top. Our challenge, was that this is where floor protection must go for the wood cookstove.

Floor protection guards a combustible floor against the potentially intense heat of a woodstove. Building codes dictate size and thickness, but it can either be installed as part of the floor, or on top of the floor. We built one of cement and brick for our wood heater, though it was more of a hearth, actually. The lady we bought the stove from, gave us everything to go with it. That included a 1 & 1/8 inch thick UL listed, brick pattern cement board to go under the stove.

Cement board floor protector,
sitting on top of the old floor

The problem with leaving it on top of the floor, is it's thickness. It sticks out where all the traffic will be, and would be too easy to stub barefoot toes on, or trip over. Because of that, we initially did not plan to use it. Our first idea was to embed ceramic tiles into a new wood plank floor. That was before we realized how serious the dip in the floor was. That dip is probably one of the reasons the old ceramic tiles were in such bad repair, and why Dan wanted nothing to do with ceramic tiles for our new kitchen floor. (The other problem is that the floor joists are on 24 inch centers, which results in a lot of bounce in the floor, though he's taken care of that.)

Tiles under a woodstove would require a cement board base. The cement board available locally, comes in quarter or half inch thicknesses. We questioned whether shimming would be enough to stabilize it, and keep the tiles and mortar secure and intact over time. Because of that, we looked for a way to utilize the brick look floor protector.

Dan finally decided that the thing to do was to tear out that section of the floor, and rebuild it to make it level.

Tearing out a section of the original floor. 

He also strengthened it by sistering in more joists and adding bridging.

Sistered, but level joists, bridging, and plywood subfloor

The new joists were positioned so as to level this section of the floor. He covered the opening with plywood, and put the ready-made floor protector on top of that.

Floor protector on the rebuilt section of
floor. The slant is the photographer's fault!

Because the plywood is thinner than the one inch oak flooring there now, the protection pad sits lower than it did before. If all works out according to plan, the plank flooring should be the same height, and the the two floors should be even.

The stove is in!

The crowning moment was being able to bring the body of the cookstove in! It's been in Dan's workshop for about a year now.

You may have noticed how far the protector sticks out in front of the stove. I mention this because we looked at a lot of photos where the floor protection only covers the floor directly under the stove. However, it's not uncommon for sparks to come flying out the firebox door when it's opened. I've lived with enough burns on my carpets and floors over the years, that I wanted my floor well protected! The stove manufacturer recommends 18 inches in front of the stove, but we managed 20 & 3/8 inches.

Still to do, is find the box with the plates in it, attach the warming oven and heat shield, and install the stove and chimney pipe. It could also use a good cleaning. Before we lose our mild daytime temps however, I'd like to get the other kitchen window replaced, so finishing the stove will probably wait until after that. At least it's in and it's level!

Our Dippy Kitchen Floor © December 2011 by Leigh at http://my5acredream.blogspot.com/