Enjoying the Sight of Persimmons Rather Than Autumn Leaves

In autumn, when the leaves turn colorful and grain turns gold, we often see on the news heavy traffic with people leaving to see autumn leaves in the mountains or streams. They look relaxed, going on a trip not to miss beautiful sceneries which will be gone soon.

Meanwhile, there are people who are up to their necks in work; they are farmers who have harvest ahead. This autumn, we, the members of the Hoiwon Church in Changwon, volunteered for a persimmon harvest to give some help, though not much, to the farmers who desperately need a hand.

We arrived at a farm after quite a long drive through colorful autumn roads under the blue sky. A farmer couple welcomed us, “Where have all these pretty workers been hidden?” In the friendly atmosphere, we went straight to a persimmon field with the farmer couple. Our job was to pick persimmons and select the ones that can be used for dried persimmons, and clean the stalk ends of the persimmons to make it easier to tie them with a thread, and to put them in boxes.

The moment I saw so many orange-colored persimmons hanging from the branches, I smiled with joy, but it also made me worry a little, wondering how long it would take to pick them all. However, there was no need to worry; the work was done really fast while tall brothers and sisters picked persimmons, and brothers and sisters with strong hands cleaned the stalk ends, and the rest of us sat and selected good persimmons.

Seeing how 150 baskets were filled in an instant with 20 kg of persimmons in each basket, amazement and joy spread over the faces of the farmer couple who were worried that they might not harvest the ripe persimmons in time. The persimmon harvest voluntary service let us feel like we were there to see the beautiful scenery of persimmons instead of autumn leaves. The persimmon farm tinged in orange warmed our hearts and provided us with beautiful scenery.