OBJECT OF DESIRE: Persimmon Pleasures

You might be a Hoosier if you know the location of a secret backroad persimmon tree that supplies you with free, foraged fruit for baking. Charlotte and Kent Waltz of Persimmon Pleasures in Bedford are most definitely Hoosiers. They’re so Hoosier, in fact, Charlotte’s cousin is said to have discovered a variety of persimmon on his Southern Indiana farm some 50 years ago. He used it to win the 1957 Mitchell Persimmon Festival (which still exists) and subsequently named it the Morris-Burton persimmon. That’s what you’ll taste inside one of Charlotte’s persimmon-chocolate-chip cookies newly available at Conner Prairie (13400 Allisonville Rd., Fishers, 776-6000). The persimmon pulp that gives the treat its chewiness carries the Indiana Artisan seal of approval.  

Photo copyright Seeds and Such, Inc.