Cooking from the Garden: Persimmons

With October nearing its close, beautiful orange persimmons are now ripe on the trees and sold at our local farm stand.  Since these are only available for a short time each year, I was happy to get a few to make persimmon bread.  Of course, I took some photos to capture the vibrant autumnal orange fruit along with a few russet mums we still find growing in the garden.  

It has been many years since I have had this persimmon bread, but I remember loving the recipe as a child. Years ago we had a neighbor with a persimmon tree who every fall would make this bread to share.  My mother recently discovered the recipe written in an old cookbook and passed it on to me.  I hope you will enjoy it as much as I do.  It is filled with fall flavor!

Persimmon Bread

Sift together:   2 1/2 cups flour, 2 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp. salt

Add to the above:  2 cups sugar, 1 cup milk, 3 tsp vegetable oil, 2 tsp vanilla, 2 eggs

Stir in:  2 cups raisins (coated in flour), 2 cups chopped walnuts, 2 cups mashed persimmon pulp (use 4 medium size, very ripe) 

Bake in two loaf pans at 350 degrees for about an hour.