In years gone by, my dad had a pair of gloves that were used for nothing except to remove the mush hull from a walnut. Then the walnuts would be dried well before we were allowed to eat them. My mother always said that "green" or "damp" walnuts would give us the sore throat, just like green apples would give us the stomach ache. Just the same, most of us had to try both, and as usual, we couldn't lie about what we had eaten. Yep, we got sick, and our ailents would give us away!
Also, years ago, we would go hickory nut hunting. I like the large hickory nuts, but in the last few years, all we have been able to find are the small ones. And during the summer when we would ride through the countryside, someone in the car would say, "There's a hickory nut tree." And we all agreed that in the fall we would drive back to gather the nuts. Come fall, none of us could remember where we had seen the tree.
One year my husband made notes where we had seen different things, and then guess what: We lost the notebook! Must be in the attic!
Papaws also are found in late sumer and early fall. Never did like them, never could stand the smell of them. But my mother could eat her weight in them. The dictionary describes them as a yellow, edible fruit coming from a tree of the custard-apple family.
That might be right, but that doesn't make me like them any better. I've also heard them called "the poor man's bananas." But they have an aroma all their own. Guess if I were really hungry, I could eat them, but if I had my druthers, I'd druther not.
And persimmons. Now that's another story. My older brother would delight in telling me that a persimmon was ripe, and I would pop it in my mouth only to pucker up until I couldn't talk.
He thought it was hilarious, but I didn't. Today when I think of a persimmon, my mouth draws and tingles, pretty much like it did when he got me to take a bite of dill pickle when I had the mumps. I still can't eat dill pickles.
Guess persimmons are OK if they ae fully ripe, but they have a lot of seeds in them and still can be quite astringent! In other words, they still have some pucker left in them!
As fall closes in around us, these memories are so fresh I can almost taste the fudge and divinity, smell the papaws and pucker at the perimmons!
