Persimmon Pudding

North Carolina is a good place to find a wild persimmon tree, but then so are most of its neighboring states with a foothold in the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains. The trees greet winter bursting with short, round, and plump little fruits not much bigger than an oversize cherry and a fine golden-orange color when ripe and ready for picking. The fruit aren’t harvested or prepared easily, being wild, popular with birds, and half-full of seeds. They seem to move from underripe to squishy