The sign is, slice open a few persimmon seeds from a few ripe persimmons (in the fall), which takes some skill with a sharp knife, and the shape inside the seeds will tell you what kind of winter it will be. Will it be mild? If so, you will see the fork. Cold and snowy, the spoon. Icy, windy and treacherous, the knife.
There are between four and eight smallish slippery seeds inside. As the seeds are hard, so is the persimmon wood of the tree, making it specialized wood. Golf clubs and other interesting items make use of persimmon wood.
Photo: Here is a photo of a seed of the persimmon, showing "the spoon." Some of the light amber or honey colored pulp is still on it.
Photos: A box of persimmons (not wild), with a box of apples above the persimmons. A persimmon wood driver (golf club).
The scientific name chosen for this berry, that is thought of as a fruit, translates from Greek to be "food of the gods." The "common name" we use, persimmon, comes from eastern American Indians.
The wild, mushy sweet (when ripe) is the best variety for flavor, in my opinion. You can eat it with a spoon and recipes are many, like preserves and fudge. Whole and unaltered is my favorite. The other main variety mostly available here, shipped in, is the firmer crispier kind (can be sliced). That main kind is o.k. and found at the green grocer far more often than the wild ones.
A trick played on the uninitiated is to offer up an unripe persimmon (the true meaning of pucker up! and then some... not recommended, one can become ill from eating unripened berries).
Last year, the persimmon seeds predominantly read "spoon" to say dig out the snow shovel (not that hardly anyone here has a snow shovel). It did snow on Christmas last year. This year, the seeds read ..."knife." Cold it is, indeed. Windy, fairly. We have snow so far. I hope the several inches on the ground of snow (with a small sandwich layer of ice) is the sum of it, and that the temperature goes up and not back into single digits, but I see there is a low possibility of light wintery mix this coming week. Tiny snow flurries right now...
