Edith Catherine Fry Terrell
The Festival is over for another year, the 72nd annual Persimmon Festival held in late September in my hometown of Mitchell, Indiana. I thought of my mother, Edith Catherine Fry Terrell , all day the last day of the festival on Saturday. That is the day of the persimmon pudding contest, which she entered dozens of times over half a century.
She won first prize out of more than 100 entries twice in that contest and many more prizes with the Pickens family recipe which dates back to the middle of the 19th century. As a great American cook, she was like so many wives, mothers and daughters who have made amazing memories with particularly American recipes, perfecting them till they can be recalled decades later.
Dishes that are tasty, often hearty and beautiful to look at with unforgettable aromas…calling up all the senses to grand appreciation for the effort it took to create them. Edith was among the best of practitioners of the art of American cooking and so much more. She represented the best of entrepreneurship, making her persimmon pudding and her very own version of fresh strawberry pie famous in southern Indiana, in her small restaurant, the kind of mom and pop operation that is the backbone of business in our country.
It is with this in mind that Edith is honored here with the Pickens Persimmon Pudding recipe presented as the first of many to come, many vintage in nature, which so carefully define American Heritage Cuisine.
