AVAILABLE AT TWICE-SOLD TALES OR ONLINE

At first, Ann Crozier didn’t know what to do with the persimmon trees that came with the house she bought in the quaint little town of Ojai, California in the 1970s. So she took to stringing a hammock between them in the summer and leaving the strange, orange fruit for birds to peck at when fall gave way to winter.

As befit her avocation as a hostess with Martha Stewart-like tendencies and her profession as Ojai’s librarian for 26 years, however, Crozier eventually began to research the culinary uses for what she called “the zucchini of the backyard fruit orchard.”

“I learned that the essential flavor of the persimmon is sweet but ineffably shy, and will lend itself to endless variations,” she wrote in the manuscript for what she hoped would one day be a cookbook filled with recipes starring the unheralded fruit.

She adapted those recipes from newspaper food sections, created originals in what she referred to as her “one-butt” kitchen and happily accepted handwritten family recipes passed along by friends.

Six months after Crozier’s death at age 64, from complications caused by cancer and a rare autoimmune disease, those same friends are the reasons copies of her Passion for Persimmons are available at Twice-Sold Tales bookstore in Ojai and on Amazon.com.

Proceeds from sales of the book benefit the three Ojai Valley libraries. A copy also is available at the Ojai Library.