Persimmon-Cream Pears

On the east coast, it was the Indians who taught the first settlers of Virginia the difference between ripe and unripe “putchamins,” which grew as high as palmetto trees. “The fruit is like a medlar,” Captain John Smith wrote, “it is first green, then yellow, then red when it is ripe; if it be not ripe it will draw a man’s mouth awry with much torment, but when it is ripe it is as delicious as an apricock