Persimmon

Persimmon trees are a fabulous sight for many weeks in the autumn. Their foliage will turn yellow, orange or scarlet depending on the cultivar used. After the foliage cover is gone the scarlet-orange colored fruit are visible. All of this happens even in the mildest of coastal climates. The fruit of the persimmon is delicious when ripe, and many make jam with it. It also makes wonderful cookies and pudding for the holiday gatherings. Try drying the fruit. It's tasty as a snack.

DEAR SOS: Wild rice soup was served at the St. Paul Hotel in St. Paul, Minn. I would appreciate your effort to obtain the recipe. It will be worth it. --RUTH DEAR RUTH: Rich, rich, rich, but good, good, good for a wintry holiday table.

If you want to add color to your garden this fall consider the persimmon tree. It has a fabulous display of colorful foliage each fall. The foliage turns yellow, orange or scarlet depending on the cultivar used, and after the leaves fall off, orange-scarlet fruit appears. Persimmon fruit is delicious with a squeeze of lemon juice and makes excellent pudding and cookies. Many people harvest the fruit to decorate Thanksgiving tables.

Other than various citrus varieties, there are not many trees that bear fruit in the fall in Southern California. Certainly the persimmon, with its beautiful orange fruit and striking fall foliage, comes to mind. Although the persimmon is a great fall fruit tree for the Southland, according to Chuan Aranyawat, a fruit tree and tropical plant expert, Southlanders are missing a bet if they don't grow a guava plant. Aranyawat says the tropical guava will do well in many Southern California regions.

IN COOKING, as in life, looks can be deceiving. Take steamed puddings. Though they appear complicated, steamed puddings are deceptively easy to prepare, requiring only patience and a small amount of work. Ingredients are quickly mixed together, poured into a buttered pudding mold, then steamed.

DEAR SOS: In a past Culinary SOS column you mentioned that your file recipe for Lemon Velvet was missing. The recipe I am enclosing was copied from The Times some time in the 1960s. --ANNE DEAR ANNE: What would we do without readers, who are the backbone of our missing-recipes bureau! LEMON VELVET 1 1/4 cups sugar Zest and juice of 3 to 4 lemons 2 cups half and half 3/4 cup evaporated milk Combine sugar, lemon zest and juice in saucepan. Cook, stirring, until sugar is dissolved. Cool.

No fruit better signals the start of the holiday season than the exotic persimmon, known for centuries to Asian consumers as the fuyu . The North County's increasing Pacific Rim population has fueled the demand for the orange, satiny-skinned fruit, which is fast becoming a familiar item in local supermarkets. In this country, the best-known variety of persimmon is the hachiya , which looks a little like a large orange acorn thanks to its pronounced conical shape.

When it comes to growing persimmons in Orange County, there are two local producers. Rancher Bill Bathgate is the biggest, which isn't saying much except for the produce stand his family opened Friday. For more than 15 years, the Bathgates have sold persimmons, oranges and avocados from a ramshackle wooden building off Camino Capistrano, and its first day of business every year is the official beginning of persimmon season.

If you can measure water, you can make your own beer, either lager or dark, using a kit imported from England. A product of Brewking Ltd. of Brackley, England, the kit consists of a burlap sack that contains a double-laminated plastic bag to hold the beer. There's an opening at the top to pour in the water and a spigot at the bottom to tap the contents, which emerge with a nice foamy head. The label has instructions on the back and a packet of yeast attached.