Persimmon Hunt

I have been feeling overwhelmed recently with how busy I have been. I like to go to my mom's house and spend time in the backyard, but even though I am only a 15 minute walk from the house I just haven't had the time. Last Friday I found some time after my morning doing volunteer habitat restoration and decided to walk over.

My favorite time of year is fall and winter in the backyard, because those are the best memories I have of lifting rocks and stepping stones to find worms and slender salamanders. Of course, the rains are starting later and later and have yet to start this season, so I didn't do any rock flipping. Instead I went on a persimmon hunt with my mom and one of my younger sisters.

We have two persimmon trees, one with hachiyas and one with fuyus. Both have fruit now, especially the hachiya, which is loaded.

The birds and squirrels will eat the hachiyas on the branch, but for some reason the squirrels like to take the fuyus and stash them around the yard. This makes for a fun persimmon hunt to find the places they stick the persimmons.

Sometimes they are pretty obvious, sticking them in empty pots or cardboard boxes that haven't been broken down for mulch yet.

Some places are just plain lazy, like the slightest depression in the ground.

close-up of cute teeth marks

Some hiding places are other fruit trees.

Some hiding places are pretty good.

I am sure we did not find them all, and these are not pictures of all of the ones we did find. It was a fun activity and a nice way to de-stress for a bit. I hope to find time to walk over again soon.