Author: Jessica Pratt, Education Section Chief
I have a vivid childhood memory of a church potluck dinner in which I spent a lot of time at the dessert table, weighing the many offerings from the ladies of Rehobeth United Methodist. I wanted a brownie. After noting the many delicious-looking options, I selected the largest corner piece. And I went back to my seat to dig in.
It only took a millisecond of my BIG first bite to realize it was not a brownie. It wasn’t even chocolate. I was informed by some of the amused adults at our table that I had instead picked up a piece of persimmon pudding. My only other persimmon experience had been stepping on old, squishy fruit while barefoot in our backyard. So I had no love for the fruit and vowed to steer clear of them from then on out.
But a couple of years ago, I gathered some persimmons while visiting home to bring back to Raleigh for a non-persimmon hating friend. My nana plants her garden and schedules her dental appointments according to the Farmers’ Almanac. She said she’d heard of folks using persimmon seeds to predict winter weather. After a bit of online reading, I found a few references to this practice, and we tried it out.
The first step is to find local persimmons because you don’t want some other place’s weather forecast. I have since found a couple of persimmon trees in my neighborhood and usually collect a few that have fallen into the street. Next, you’ll separate the seeds from the fruit and rinse them. Some online sources suggest randomly selecting a seed to represent each week of the winter season. Cutting the seeds in half is tough; soaking may help. I use a pair of pliers to squeeze each seed until it splits. Then look for the “utensils” inside the seeds.
Do you see a fork? If so, you can expect mild weather. A spoon indicates that you’ll be shoveling snow. And a knife is said to represent cutting wind and cold. Sometimes the shapes are hard to make out, and I mostly see a lot of sporks. My middle-school-aged son, who is hopeful for snow days, will usually claim to discern more spoons than I do. Check out the seeds above from my 2023 Guilford County persimmons; what forecast do you see?