Kaki & Clean-up

One of my favorite topics of fall: KAKI (persimmons). Fruit stands in Camarillo sell them cheap and I notice them creeping into recipes (California chef, Alice Waters, has a persimmon salad in her recent cookbook), as people figure out how to use them. A restaurant in Maui reportedly makes a kaki creme brulee. The jury's still out, but I think they're still best just eaten fresh.

For me, KAKI are a childhood fruit that I missed after leaving home. They popped up again in a Korean market in Tacoma and, also, in Japan, where kaki trees are everywhere. Years ago, I was struck to hear them sold by their Japanese name in Italy. They are a low maintenance item thus owners of vacant lots grow kaki to skip out on some kind of higher level of property tax.

In Japan, KAKI seemed to occupy the place lemons or grapes have in Italy, ie artistic motifs. We have a favorite sugar bowl designed like the fruit with a ceramic leaf top. They are hung vertically to dry on people's verandas and sold that way. They are high in vitamin C; I used to make a Wahldorf out of them.

Contemporary artist, Ryohei Tanaka.

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Thanks to preschool, Jack has a social calendar of birthdays which, out here, seems to mean pony rides.

The other day, I took some big boxes and made a simple ship which we immediately decorated with leftover Narnia banners, christening the vessel, The Dawntreader. Boxes remain the toy of choice.