California Souvenir - Persimmons!

We just got back from a five day visit to California to visit Geoff's family. We had beautiful weather (in the 70s and 80s). I developed some seasonal food envy when we ate from his parent's recent community supported agriculture share which included watermelon and persimmons. Geoff's dad is on the faculty at Santa Clara University. According to his dad, the food came from a student-run community supported agriculture program on-campus. His mom said that the food came from the university's community garden program. I Goggled both and came up with the CSA (Chinese Student Association) and the Owl's Clover Community Garden. Well, I don't think the food came from the Chinese Student Association (I could be wrong but it's a strong hunch). There were only brief descriptions of the Owl's Clover Community Garden but it sounded promising. In any case, Geoff's dad said he'd send me more information about the program. I wanted to write this preamble because part of Caroline's snack tomorrow comes from the Santa Clara program: persimmons! Persimmons are lovely, orange fruits that are hard to come by around here but are abundant in California in the fall and early winter. There are several different varieties and some can be eaten hard while others are very astringent and need to soften before they lose their tannic quality. I don't know which variety I brought home with me but I do know that it is the type that can be eaten hard. We ate several while we were in California and they were delicious.

Caroline's Lunchbox Menu, October 30: Breakfast - oatmeal, applesauce; Lunch - spiral pasta, Navy beans, peas (frozen, Cascadian Farm), winter squash, persimmon; Snacks - Great Aunt Pat's bran muffin