david weaver
had some persimmon trees in his grove near Lebanon, PA (northeast of mystertown, more or less). My wife doesn't know anything about it other than that she thinks the fruit is disgusting.

My mother has a boatload of dogwood, too, but her trees are higher value to her than my father and I, so no luck there.

I also have a box full of persimmon that someone sent me for boxing on planes, and it's good, but too thin for chess pieces, and is pretty dark for persimmon.

Leading me to ebay, where there are several nice light colored listings of persimmon, so it wins. Thanks for the suggestion.

Boxwood at this point looks prohibitive at best, unavailable in any significant quantities at the worst. I'll leave it for the people fixing expensive antiques.