{"id":1188,"date":"2011-10-27T15:16:33","date_gmt":"2011-10-27T19:16:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/?p=1188"},"modified":"2011-11-08T15:33:50","modified_gmt":"2011-11-08T20:33:50","slug":"remembering-persimmon-pete","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/2011\/10\/remembering-persimmon-pete\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Persimmon Pete"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><div id=\"attachment_21657\" style=\"width: 210px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/?attachment_id=21657\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-21657\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-21657\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/floraiveyWEB.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"floraiveyWEB\" width=\"200\" height=\"297\" class=\"size-full wp-image-21657\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-21657\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pete Ivey contemplates a persimmon. Photo by Roland Giduz<\/p><\/div><strong>By Ken Moore<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Flora Columnist<\/em><br \/>\nRight here in the middle of persimmon season, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m realizing that I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t remember ever seeing such a bountiful crop from our native fruit tree, <em>Diospyros virginiana<\/em>. This fall\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s heavy crop on trees along roads around town makes me aware of numerous specimens I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve never before noticed.<\/p>\n<p>Ever year during \u00e2\u20ac\u2122simmon season, I remember \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Persimmon Pete\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Ivey, who for 20 years was director of the UNC News Bureau. Pete died back in 1975, and though during those years I remember folks talking about Pete\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s persimmon recipes, I never met him and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sad about that.<br \/>\n<div id=\"attachment_21658\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/?attachment_id=21658\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-21658\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-21658\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Persimmon-fruit.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"Persimmon-fruit\" width=\"300\" height=\"400\" class=\"size-full wp-image-21658\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-21658\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">These Alamance County persimmons have breadth of more than 1.5 inches.  Photo by Ken Moore <\/p><\/div><br \/>\nAnd every year during \u00e2\u20ac\u2122simmon season, I also remember Roland Giduz, lifelong Chapel Hill resident, 14-year member of the Chapel Hill Board of Aldermen and longtime photographer, reporter and columnist for the <em>Chapel Hill News Leader<\/em>. When Roland died in January 2009, our towns lost a wonderful friend, a man who so enthusiastically kept the community personalities, traditions and stories alive in our consciousness.<\/p>\n<p>In the late 1950s, Roland described Pete Ivey\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s enthusiasm for persimmons in the old <em>Chapel Hill News Leader<\/em>. Stories of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Persimmon Pete,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the self-proclaimed \u00e2\u20ac\u0153patron saint of persimmonry,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and his persimmon recipes became legendary.<\/p>\n<p>You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll enjoy reading about Pete and his persimmons, and more, in Roland Giduz\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s <em>Who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Gonna Cover \u00e2\u20ac\u2122Em Up?!: Chapel Hill Uncovered \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 1950-1985<\/em>. <\/p>\n<p>Following Pete\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s death, Roland carried on the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153persimmonry\u00e2\u20ac\u009d tradition, going so far as to initiate a campaign to have the persimmon declared the state fruit. Sadly, not enough enthusiasts gathered around that cause. The scuppernong grape (<em>Vitus rotundifolia<\/em>) was declared the official State Fruit in 2001. But scuppernong is a vine, so it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s appropriate to pick up the torch and lobby for the persimmon to become our official State Native Fruit Tree. <\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, persimmons will be dropping fruit for several more weeks, so find yourself a tree and make daily visits to collect those ripened fruits from the ground before the possums and other critters beat you to it. Make certain the persimmon is ripe, soft to the touch; you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll never put an un-ripened one in your mouth a second time!<br \/>\n<div id=\"attachment_21659\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/?attachment_id=21659\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-21659\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-21659\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Persimmon-tree-dwarf.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"Persimmon-tree-dwarf\" width=\"300\" height=\"400\" class=\"size-full wp-image-21659\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-21659\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A robust dwarf persimmon tree grows in rural Alamance County. Photo by Ken Moore<\/p><\/div><br \/>\nMost folks use persimmons for pudding and bread recipes, or beer. I prefer simply eating a ripe one as it is, and the pure pulp makes a great ice cream topping. Save the flat, long-oval, dark-brown seeds and plant them in the ground where you want your own persimmon trees. Plant several seeds some feet apart, for you need male and female trees if you want fruit.<\/p>\n<p>I have my eye on what may be a dwarf tree growing along a roadside near Alamance Battleground. It produces abundantly every year and has the largest, most delicious fruit I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve ever tasted. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m taking Matt Gocke, the botanical garden\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s tree propagator extraordinaire, to see that tree. I hope Matt will succeed in producing lots of offspring from that tree, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d like to call them all, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Persimmon Pete\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Delight.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>What I am missing is Pete Ivey\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s persimmon recipe. Somehow I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve missed obtaining it. I hope one of you out there has or remembers it. Please forward it to flora@carrborocitizen.com so it can be shared.<\/p>\n<p><em>Editor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Note: Following this Flora column on persimmons, the family of Pete Ivey shared his persimmon pudding recipe.<\/em><br \/>\n<strong>Persimmon Pete\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Persimmon Pudding<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><div id=\"attachment_1192\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/2011\/10\/remembering-persimmon-pete\/florasidebar\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-1192\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1192\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/FloraSidebar.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"FloraSidebar\" width=\"300\" height=\"392\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1192\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/FloraSidebar.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/FloraSidebar-229x300.jpg 229w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1192\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A caricature of Pete Ivey drawn by Bud Brexler, director of security for N.C. Memorial Hospital, for Pete\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 20th anniversary as director of the UNC News Bureau on Sept. 1, 1975<\/p><\/div><br \/>\nPersimmon pudding is good hot or cold, and some like to add vanilla ice cream or whipped cream. Pete Ivey often froze it and his kids would eat it right out of the freezer, little sliver by little sliver, hoping the shrinking delicacy would not be noticed. <\/p>\n<p>Special thanks to Persimmon Pete\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s daughter, Helene Ivey, for sharing his favorite recipe.<\/p>\n<p><em>Ingredients<\/em><br \/>\n2 cups persimmon pulp (about two dozen persimmons strained through a colander)<br \/>\n3 eggs<br \/>\n1 \u00c2\u00bc cups sugar<br \/>\n1\u00c2\u00bc cups all-purpose flour<br \/>\n1 teaspoon baking soda<br \/>\n1 teaspoon baking powder<br \/>\n\u00c2\u00bd teaspoon salt<br \/>\n\u00c2\u00bd cup melted butter<br \/>\n2\u00c2\u00bd cups whole milk<br \/>\n2 teaspoons cinnamon<br \/>\n1 teaspoon ginger<br \/>\n\u00c2\u00bd teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg<\/p>\n<p><em>Procedure<\/em><br \/>\nBeat all ingredients together well and pour into a 9-by-9-inch well-greased baking dish. Bake at 325 degrees for about an hour or until firm.  <\/p>\n<p><em>Email Ken Moore at flora@carrborocitizen.com. Find previous Ken Moore Citizen columns at The Annotated Flora (carrborocitizen.com\/flora).<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Ken Moore Flora Columnist Right here in the middle of persimmon season, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m realizing that I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t remember ever seeing such a bountiful crop from our native fruit tree, Diospyros virginiana. This fall\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s heavy crop on trees along roads around town makes me aware of numerous specimens I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve never before noticed. Ever year during [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,3],"tags":[36,37,864,865,875,874],"class_list":["post-1188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-ken-moores-flora","tag-diospyros-virginiana","tag-persimmon","tag-pete-ivey","tag-roland-giduz","tag-scuppernong-grape","tag-vitus-rotundifolia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1188"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1198,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1188\/revisions\/1198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}