Over 30 years ago, an old woman neighbor, came to my house and told me to get in her truck to see what "we" needed to do to prepare for the winter. We went to a persimmon tree and removed about 20 fruits. We cut them up, removed the seeds & then split the seeds in half. That year, the center of the seeds all looked like forks. That's a mild winter; go ahead and plan to cut
hay all winter. Knives = cutting cold and cutting winds. Spoons/shovels = a lot of snow.
This has never been wrong, never.