How would I go about persisting an object that has a java.util.Properties object in it?

Note that a java.util.Properties object has the ability to lookup properties not only in itself, but also in a default properties list. The default properties list is itself another Properties object, so it too can have another default properties list. Looking up a single property could traverse multiple Properties objects before the property is found.

The application I'm building needs override-able properties in a hierarchical manner like Properties provides, so I was thinking of using Properties instead of implementing my own data structure. But I'm confused on how I would persist them.

Would I need to create a custom UserType? Any pointers on how to do this for this situation?

Anyone know of a how-to or other resource that demonstrates how to persist Properties in Hibernate?

I posted this question on StackOverflow, but haven't received any responses yet. Feel free to answer there if you wish:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4214 ... -hibernate

Thanks,
Tauren