Photo by Mariapaola Ardemagni
Not everyone knows that inside persimmon seeds there are beautiful miniature cutlery : depending on the seed one can expect to find spoon, knife or fork . The peasant tradition says that depending on the covers we find, we can predict what winter will be like.
To tell the truth, nowadays not everyone knows that there must be seeds inside the fruit of the persimmon: the selection of varieties has aimed to produce seedless persimmons and it is becoming more and more rarer to find. The seed is inside the pulp, it is medium in size, one to two centimeters long, with a brown crust.
To find the cutlery, we have to cut the seed in half lengthwise, using a knife. Usually the cutlery inside is clearly visible, of a beautiful white color. It won’t be hard to tell if we found a fork, a spoon or a knife.
Winter forecast with seeds
Since the persimmon harvest takes place in autumn, between October and November, popular belief attributes to these beautiful cutlery the task of show us what winter will be like . If you want to get into these unscientific weather forecasts, you need to know how to read silverware.
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The spoon this means there will be enough snow to shovel.
- The fork indicates a mild, frost-free winter.
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Knife it is a sign of acute cold.
The cutlery game is beautiful to play with the children , who will have fun discovering the surprise hidden in each seed. It’s one of the many ways to get toddlers interested in nature, by sparking interest in a seed. This can become the occasion for a “scientific” explanation , as long as it doesn’t spoil the whole magical and playful aspect. What is called covered is actually nothing other than the bud, its shape is variable depending on its stage of preparation to come out and emit cotyledons (the first leaves). Thus, our knife, fork or teaspoon is nothing more than the young persimmon plant, not yet born and protected by the seed coat. The white color is due to the fact that the germ closes in the dark, once germinated thanks to the photosynthesis of chlorophyll it will turn into the green that we are used to.
Unfortunately, as we have said, it is rare to find seeds in persimmons bought in the supermarket, and in general in those that come from well-selected plants, on the other hand, it has also become difficult to predict the weather, with more and more abnormal winters.