
{"id":27914,"date":"2012-09-20T10:40:32","date_gmt":"2012-09-20T14:40:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=27914"},"modified":"2012-09-21T10:38:23","modified_gmt":"2012-09-21T14:38:23","slug":"flora-again-remembering-persimmon-pete","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2012\/09\/20\/flora-again-remembering-persimmon-pete\/","title":{"rendered":"FLORA: Again remembering Persimmon Pete"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Ken Moore<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time to begin gathering fruit from our native persimmon, <em>Diospyros virginiana<\/em>.<br \/>\n<figure id=\"attachment_27955\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-27955\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2012\/09\/20\/flora-again-remembering-persimmon-pete\/peteivey\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-27955\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/PeteIvey.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"PeteIvey\" width=\"300\" height=\"446\" class=\"size-full wp-image-27955\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/PeteIvey.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/PeteIvey-100x150.jpg 100w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/PeteIvey-76x113.jpg 76w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/PeteIvey-67x100.jpg 67w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-27955\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pete Ivey contemplates a persimmon. Photo by Brian Stokes<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nEvery 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.<\/p>\n<p>And 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\u00c2\u00a0<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\u00c2\u00a0<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\u00c2\u00a0<em>Who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Gonna Cover \u00e2\u20ac\u2122Em Up?!: Chapel Hill Uncovered \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 1950-1985<\/em>.<br \/>\n<figure id=\"attachment_27957\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-27957\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2012\/09\/20\/flora-again-remembering-persimmon-pete\/persimmon-fruit-2\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-27957\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Persimmon-fruit.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"Persimmon-fruit\" width=\"400\" height=\"533\" class=\"size-full wp-image-27957\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Persimmon-fruit.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Persimmon-fruit-113x150.jpg 113w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Persimmon-fruit-84x113.jpg 84w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Persimmon-fruit-75x100.jpg 75w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Persimmon-fruit-345x460.jpg 345w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-27957\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">One of many fruitful persimmon trees in town and surrounding rural areas. Photo by Ken Moore<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nFollowing 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.<br \/>\n<figure id=\"attachment_27956\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-27956\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2012\/09\/20\/flora-again-remembering-persimmon-pete\/persimmoncartoon\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-27956\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/PersimmonCartoon.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"PersimmonCartoon\" width=\"400\" height=\"515\" class=\"size-full wp-image-27956\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/PersimmonCartoon.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/PersimmonCartoon-113x145.jpg 113w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/PersimmonCartoon-87x113.jpg 87w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/PersimmonCartoon-77x100.jpg 77w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/PersimmonCartoon-357x460.jpg 357w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-27956\" 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.<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nIn the meantime, persimmons will be dropping fruit into November, 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 unripened one in your mouth a second time!<\/p>\n<p>Most 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><em>Email Ken Moore at flora@carrborocitizen.com. Find previous Ken Moore Citizen columns at <a href=\"http:\/\/carrborocitizen.com\/flora\">The Annotated Flora<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time to begin gathering fruit from our native persimmon, Diospyros virginiana.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":27955,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-flora"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27914"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28009,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27914\/revisions\/28009"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}