Persimmon Pudding, from tree to table.  

Step One:  Find a neighbor with a gorgeous, almost cartoon like persimmon tree.  Ask your Mom to help you pick persimmons… Mom always likes to help.

Step Two:  Entice neighbor and Mamabear with the promise of fresh baked persimmon pudding if you’re granted access to their persimmon tree.  

Step Three:  Try this phrase, “Hey Neighbor!  I think you’re just swell.  Can I borrow a ladder?  That’s one tall tree.  Sweet… thanks.”

Step Four:  If you decide to sneak a peek into the other neighbor’s yard while you’re up on that ladder picking persimmons… maybe you’ll want to be more subtle than my mother.  I’m just sayin…

Step Five:  Pick the ripest, softest persimmons.  Way to be, Mom!

Step Six:  Carefully place super ripe persimmons in bag to cart off home, thanking your neighbors Dan and Libby for their ladder and their abundant tree. 

Step Seven:  If you don’t happen to have a neighbor with a persimmon tree, I’m betting that the local farmer’s market will have some gorgeous Hachiya persimmons for you this time of year…. and you won’t need a ladder. 

Step Eight:  Call your favorite Aunt from Indiana and ask her to promptly send you all of the persimmon recipes she owns… that will be a lot.  Seriously.  Thanks Judy!

Let’s very quickly clear up any confusion you might have about persimmons.  There are probably two types of persimmons that you might run in your search for the fruit this autumn.  Fuyu persimmons are the squat little darlings that you can eat when they are hard.  Hachiya persimmons are the more bulbous fruit that are best enjoyed super right and super soft.  Hachiya persimmons are lovely for baking as they are super sweet… like eating nectar… dreamy.

Now… let’s talk about ‘Simmon Puddin’.  When you think of Persimmon Pudding think of sweet and super moist bread pudding meets spice cake.  If you can… close your eyes and think about a dessert that you grandmother might make in October 1976 if you lived in Indiana… now, you might not like this dessert as much as you like your grandmother’s chocolate cake, but you liked that she served her Persimmon Pudding with super melty vanilla ice cream… which made everything ok.   There you go…. that’s Persimmon Pudding.

Persimmon Pudding

     some old school Indiana newspaper 1976

     makes 6 to 8 servings

     Print this Recipe!

2 cups fresh Hachiya persimmon pulp, removed from the skin

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup sugar

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

pinch of salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

2 cups milk

1 egg

1 tablespoon melted butter, plus more for buttering dish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Butter a 9×9 baking dish and set aside

Stir the baking soda and sugar into the persimmon pulp and set aside.  This mixture may thicken as it sits… that’s ok!

Sift together flour, baking powder, salt and spices.  Add to the persimmon mixture all at once and stir until flour is almost completely incorporated.  

Whisk together milk, egg and butter and add to the persimmon and flour mixture.  Batter will be very loose.  Pour into the baking dish.  

Bake for 1 hour covered with foil, or uncovered.  If you make the pudding covered, you’ll have a very wet and moist pudding.  If you bake the pudding uncovered, you’ll have a drier pudding topped with a bread like crust.  I baked my pudding uncovered.  Bake the pudding until it is firm but still very moist.

Allow to sit at room temperature for 30 minutes before serving.  Best served warm with vanilla ice cream.

Hi.  Hello.  Hey!

I hope your weekend is going swimmingly.

I just wanted to take a moment and introduce you to my tomatoes, Lucy and Ethel.

I’d also like to answer a few questions.

Yes, I’ve named my first two tomatoes after Lucy Ricardo and Ethel Mertz from I Love Lucy.

Yes, I love that show.

Yes, I seem to have become abnormally attached to my tomatoes.  No, I don’t feel bad about that.

Also, this is happening.  I better start thinking of more names… and quick.

Are you gardening?

There are a few reasons why you should read this post.

1.  I’m no gardener, but with a team of friends and experts, I might have just created a successful one pot garden… you can too!

2.  While this post may not be filled with butter and sugar, it is still a nice distraction from work, right!?

3.  I’m drinking wine and I’ve got a mild degree of writers block.  I’m bound to get a little punchy and make you laugh at some point.  Yes?

This year’s Spring garden… ok, my first Spring garden ever… was inspired by two things: my undying adoration of summer tomatoes and my utter annoyance at the high price of said tomatoes.

So here we are, talking tomatoes. Not just any tomatoes, but peak of the season summer tomatoes.  Besides my gradual fake tanning lotion, they might just be the best thing about the summer months.

The truth is, there’s a reason that this blog isn’t called Joy the Gardener.  I kill just about everything I put in dirt.  It’s a classic case of over enthusiasm and waaaaay too much water.  I over water and kill my plants, a fact that is sad but true.

This Spring I’ve got help.  My Mom happens to be an amazing gardener… she also happens to be retired, which leaves her plenty of time for nursery trips to counsel me on which fertilizer is best and why.  Then there’s my darling friend Rachael.  She’s blonde, beautiful, hilarious, and is oh-so-generous with the crap ton of knowledge she has about growing tomatoes.  With these two on my team, my garden can’t fail!  Now I just need someone to keep the watering can away from me.

If I can grow a tomato garden on the tiny balcony of my Los Angeles apartment, you can too.  Here’s the skinny:

I headed out to the nursery with my Mom.  It turns out… there are a TON of plants at a nursery… most of them being green.  It might have been hard for me to find what I needed, had it not been for my Mom.  It’s not that things are hard to find, it’s just that I’m not tremendously plant literate.

I had a very specific  One Pot Garden list.  If you want to play along, here’s what you’ll need

1 tomato plant  (Mine is a black cherry tomato plant.. thanks Rachael!)

1 basil plant

1 marjoram plant

1 parsley plant

1 nasturtium plant

1 giant bag of  Dr. Earth Organic Potting Soil

1 small bag of organic vegetable fertilizer of some sort.  I used GroBetter All-Purpose Organic Fertilizer.

I stake to tie your tomato plant to as it grows

1 giant pot and saucer.  Mine is about 15-inches tall and with a 15-inch diameter.  I used a plastic pot because it’s much lighter and it helps keep the moisture in the soil.

Here’s what I did:

Fill the pot about two thirds full with the potting soil.  Sprinkle with organic fertilizer as directed on the bag.  Water just to moisten the soil.  Fertilizer isn’t one of those things that you want to touch with your hands.  It’s just not a good idea.  Grab some gloves or use a scooper.

Arrange the plants in the pot, still in their plastic containers, just so you can see where everything will go.

Remove the plants from their tiny plastic containers and gently loosen the bottom of the soil, loosening their roots.  Set in place on top of the potting soil and fertilizer.  Using a large cup for scooping, place more potting soil around the plants.  Sprinkling with just a bit more fertilizer as you go.  Firmly press the potting soil and plants into the pot and add more potting soil.  You won’t fill the pot to the brim with potting soil.  Fill the pot with soil until you’re about three inches from the brim.  Water generously and set in a sunny spot.

Set the stake to the side and use it when the tomato plant starts to get too talk to grow up on its own.

Fun facts:

Tomatoes like loads of sunlight.  Don’t be afraid to put your new garden in a spot that gets at least seven hours of direct sunlight.  Your plants will love it.

Check to see if your pot needs watering by sticking your finger into the soil.  The soil should be moist and cool.  If it feels a little dry, water away… otherwise, just leave it be.

Why put all those plants in one pot!?  It turns out that all those plants work together like a team.  Whether its keeping pests away, or replenishing the soil with nutrients, all the plants in that one pot are extremely happy.  And!  Nastrutium flowers are edible.  They’re a a great, peppery addition to a salad!

Having a little garden is unbelievably satisfying.  I sit on my otherwise uninviting balcony sometimes just to watch my plants grow.  Now my balcony is like a bonus room.   I also run my fingers through the leaves of my growing tomato plant to get that fresh tomato smell on my hands.  Yes, dorky but true.

Even if you live in a tiny apartment, as long as you have a space with loads of sunlight, you can have a coy little one pot garden!  It’s true!  It makes life better! Let’s do this together!

More tomato posts and garden updates to come.