The Pre-Dawn Harvest Mission

From what I've seen, fruit and berries from state land are generally free game "in reasonable quantities" for personal use. Milage may vary depending what state you're in. Nobody was looking when I took 34lbs of beach plums from a local state park (which may be a little much to be a reasonable quantity), but another one nearby actually hosts a festival around them, allowing picking.

My uncle makes wine and let me tell you, even with juicy commercial varieties it takes a TON of grapes to make a decent sized batch.
 
Some years ago I made my own muscidine/fox grape wine. It took a six gallon igloo cooler full to make a five gallon glass carboy full, which finished off to four gallons when settled, siphoned, filtered and bottled.
 
Ferrousknight said:
From what I've seen, fruit and berries from state land are generally free game "in reasonable quantities" for personal use. Milage may vary depending what state you're in. Nobody was looking when I took 34lbs of beach plums from a local state park (which may be a little much to be a reasonable quantity), but another one nearby actually hosts a festival around them, allowing picking.

My uncle makes wine and let me tell you, even with juicy commercial varieties it takes a TON of grapes to make a decent sized batch.
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I never even hesitate to grab enough of the things I find growing there to munch on for the day...even take a few home most of the time. Hickory nuts, walnuts, muscadines. First time I've found the grapes. Now I know to keep an eye on that general are next year. Maybe make a special trip just for them, hit the entire area one evening and get enough to actually do something with.


Codger_64 said:
Some years ago I made my own muscidine/fox grape wine. It took a six gallon igloo cooler full to make a five gallon glass carboy full, which finished off to four gallons when settled, siphoned, filtered and bottled.
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Nowhere near that many on that one vine, I picked all the ripe ones I could find. I didn't have time to look for more that day but I'm going back to that general area tomorrow so I'll see what I can see.
 
No, it usually takes ranging over many acres to find that many, and over a few weeks time as they begin to ripen. Don't be afraid to shake the taller vines to make the riper ones fall. You can freeze them as you find them to accumulate enough to work with. That will keep them from fermenting before you are ready. They are favored by foxes, coyotes and a lot of other mammals and birds, so you will have some competition for them. Same goes for hunting up persimmons to make persimmon wine, jam, bread and pies.

I hope you have tossed out those jimson seed pods. It would be terrible for pets or kids to come across them.
 
Codger_64 said:
No, it usually takes ranging over many acres to find that many, and over a few weeks time as they begin to ripen. Don't be afraid to shake the taller vines to make the riper ones fall. You can freeze them as you find them to accumulate enough to work with. That will keep them from fermenting before you are ready. They are favored by foxes, coyotes and a lot of other mammals and birds, so you will have some competition for them. Same goes for hunting up persimmons to make persimmon wine, jam, bread and pies.

I hope you have tossed out those jimson seed pods. It would be terrible for pets or kids to come across them.
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my grandpa has a persimmon tree in his front yard. i live across the road from him.. i have to fight the deer for them.. one of my fav all time southern treats is persimmon pudding.. man oh man..
 
Codger_64 said:
No, it usually takes ranging over many acres to find that many, and over a few weeks time as they begin to ripen. Don't be afraid to shake the taller vines to make the riper ones fall. You can freeze them as you find them to accumulate enough to work with. That will keep them from fermenting before you are ready. They are favored by foxes, coyotes and a lot of other mammals and birds, so you will have some competition for them. Same goes for hunting up persimmons to make persimmon wine, jam, bread and pies.

I hope you have tossed out those jimson seed pods. It would be terrible for pets or kids to come across them.
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I think I have found enough to do something with...after ranging over several acres...now if they are only still there after this coming weekend, P.C. is closed for the first managed hunt this weekend.

No, I haven't thrown them away just yet, I'm using them in situational awareness & toxic plant photos for my website. I do however have them well secured where no accidents can happen though. I am going to harvest some of the open, dried, and empty pods later as well.


hung-solo said:
my grandpa has a persimmon tree in his front yard. i live across the road from him.. i have to fight the deer for them.. one of my fav all time southern treats is persimmon pudding.. man oh man..
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I just found a nice sized Persimmon tree on the last hike, I want to get a couple of small ones and plant them here.
 
It takes the wild persimmons quite some time to begin producing, but they are great for attracting wildlife (and wild Codgers). Most people who opt to grow persimmons buy and plant the tame oriental variety for quicker production and larger fruits (often 3x as large as wild).

If you are serious about getting ahead of the wildlife on persimmons, a fruit picker's basket on a pole is the ticket. If the fruit is truly ripe, you have to be careful transporting and storing it, or you will wind up with a bucket of mush. And you will find your bucket being followed by bees, wasps and other critters attracted to the sweet smell. In fact, the smell of the ripe fruit is how I often locate the trees in the woods. I gather them into one gallon freezer ziplocs and carry them in my shoulder bag. Mushed is OK if it is contained and the fruit is clean to begin with. I freeze them until I have enough for a recipe. Try the pulp (no stems, seeds, skin) added to a frybread recipe or hoecakes.

Varieties of wild blueberries are also good to plant since they do well in acidic, thin soils without a lot of water or care.
 
Codger_64 said:
It takes the wild persimmons quite some time to begin producing, but they are great for attracting wildlife (and wild Codgers). Most people who opt to grow persimmons buy and plant the tame oriental variety for quicker production and larger fruits (often 3x as large as wild).

If you are serious about getting ahead of the wildlife on persimmons, a fruit picker's basket on a pole is the ticket. If the fruit is truly ripe, you have to be careful transporting and storing it, or you will wind up with a bucket of mush. And you will find your bucket being followed by bees, wasps and other critters attracted to the sweet smell. In fact, the smell of the ripe fruit is how I often locate the trees in the woods. I gather them into one gallon freezer ziplocs and carry them in my shoulder bag. Mushed is OK if it is contained and the fruit is clean to begin with. I freeze them until I have enough for a recipe. Try the pulp (no stems, seeds, skin) added to a frybread recipe or hoecakes.

Varieties of wild blueberries are also good to plant since they do well in acidic, thin soils without a lot of water or care.
Click to expand...

I may do that, I'm going looking for more persimmon trees in the area next week. I can park about 200 meters away from that tree so I could make multiple trips from that area pretty easy. And with all the Hornets and bees in that general area I would definitely take care to seal the fruit.

I want to plant some of these here on my land but may plant a couple of tame ones as well for quicker growth and sooner harvests.
 
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