Was with the brother fishing and came across this tree and noticed lots of red/orange/yellow fruit on it.

It looked similar to a peach or apricot but is round all the way around. It also smells like both as well as a little like an orange.

It doesn't have a pit, but 8 big, hard seeds. I tried to cut the half pieces in half again and the two pieces break off, like you have with oranges where the slices just pull apart, but this was more mushy.

All the ones we saw, which there were lots, looked about golf/pingpong ball size. Some were firm, others mostly mushy. The tree itself was rather tall and branches/leaves came down all the way to the ground.

Persimmon

that is a persimmon. dont attempt to eat that unless we have had a frost. it will give you heep big pucker power

Don't try them til they are soft. They can get pretty sweet when soft. There are the native trees that have the smaller fruit. I have seen several persimmon trees in East Texas in the towns that have fruit the size of large oranges. Found out that they were Japanese persimmons.

Thanks. We were completely lost as to what it was.

We haven't had a frost yet, so probably not best now. It shouldn't hurt to eat some of one, right, at least health wise? We might go look at them again tomorrow and find one or two good looking ones, freeze them and try them.

Sure will pucker you up. I know from experience!

persimmon Bezoar

I just Googled that. So basically, drink some Coca-Cola after I eat them? It looked like you had to eat a ton though. They mentioned a guy who ate 2 pounds a day for 40 years.

Looks dangerous dude...lol

kinda like a icky tomato, or some sort of deviant nightshade fruit that will turn your culo inside out...

plenty of good SAFE fruits at the HEB!!! don't do it!!!

They make good jam and jelly see how @ http://www.pickyourown.org/persimmonjelly.php

I know some people use them to make cookies

My brother ate some of one. He said I should have to eat some too so I could experience what he had to experience. Lol.

I'll found out over the next few days if freezing them helps. I was definitely not going to touch it until I knew what it was, I had the same thought as you.

The oldtimers say do not even try to eat them until after the first frost, then they get sickeningly sweet...I ate them as a child in E Texas

In the Hill Country, there is a Mexican persimmon, but it is black, grows on a smallish bush less than 15 ft tall...makes a great wine, like cabernet

Native persimmon. No good for eats until after first frost! They get "rotten looking" soft, but that is when they are at their peak! Very sweet. Eat it now and you will never forget that experience for the rest of your life!

Deer love em. The trees when in clusters can harbor big flocks of dove during the season! When I was a kid we would sit in a field between a gravel pit and a persimmon patch, Near sunset, the doves would come in droves out of the patch to drink water, and it was easy pickin's for us!

Rudy

Hope your genius brother doesn't take the same approach to mushrooms. Eating some random wild fruit you can't identify is too stupid for words. That's how people die. A guy died last week in East Texas from eating poison berries he THOUGHT were safe while he was out on his land.

NEVER eat wild food you can't 100% identify.