In honor of Thanksgiving, here’s a spicy, orangey-brown, autumnal recipe for you.

Like many new recipes, this one started with the question, “What do I do with all these x?”  Persimmons, in this case.  I’d happened on three Fuyu persimmons in a mixed bag of fruit and I had no idea what to do with them.  To me, they taste too sweet to eat fresh.  Jam, maybe?

Many people shy away from making jams and jellies because the canning process is difficult and requires specialized equipment.  But here’s the thing: making the jam itself is dead easy, and if you’re willing to keep the jam in the refrigerator and eat it up quickly, you don’t have to can it.  Really.  This recipe is easy.

Persimmon Refrigerator Jam

• Three persimmons
• Three overripe pears
• Juice from 1/4 of a lemon
• 1/3 cup of brown sugar
• Cinnamon and clove to taste

Here’s what the fruits looked like.

Closeup of a persimmon’s insides.

Wash the persimmons and pears, then remove the stems from the persimmons and the cores from the pears.  Chop each fruit roughly into 5-6 pieces.  Put them into a slow cooker.

Add all the other ingredients, then not quite enough water to cover.  Cook on the slow cooker on low.  Stir every couple of hours and mash fruit down with a potato masher.

The jam should be done in about eight hours.  (Told you it was easy.)

The finished product.