I just ate a whole persimmon, skin and all (are you supposed to eat it without the skin?) It was amazing! It mainly tasted like a fruity ball of sugar! :p What I noticed while eating it was that on the inside there were tiny black speckles.. I am wondering, is this normal? Also out of paranoia, lol, I should mention that I purchased these from a fruit and veggie stand, whose owned by a very respectable farmer, but in the basket from where the persimmons came, there were also cockroaches. Yes I know it freaked me out to, but there were some rotten fruits in the bottom so I though that bugs around that area was ordinary. To get back to the point, are little black speckles on the inside normal? Maybe the fruit was overripe. I just need to know so that I dont let my imagination get the best of me,..you can see where this is going...

Maybe they were spider eggs and soon spiders will hatch inside your brain and crawl out your ears You could incorporate this into a Halloween gag and scare little children.

I ate a persimmon that had those today too. I don't know what they are, but I swallowed them and they tasted fine.

measure twice, cut once.

"In Watermelon Sugar the deeds were done and done again as my life is done in watermelon sugar." ~r.brautigan

I make paintings

was the persimmon the hard kind or the soft?

i just found some of the soft variety for 25cents a peace
for being "over ripe)
they were little luminescent water balloons

totally full of a peace

no black speckles so cant help ya on that one

Fuzzysox,
The darker speckles are normal, nothing unusual. There are several varieties of persimmons. There is a round more firm type, and then there is a more elongated type with a point on the end. The pointed ones are very, very soft, and tend to be much sweeter. You can eat the skin, don't eat the seeds. I have heard of the 'leaves' on the top being used as an herb. (I say 'leaves' because it has a more technical name which i can't think of right at the moment.)

I really love persimmons! I fell in love with them the first time I tried them. The round type was the first type. I loved the crisp, juicy refreshing texture, with a slight spicy flavor. The softer type took a bit more to get to like, because although they are sweeter, they tend to be a bit 'mushy' and leave a film in your mouth. But now I actually prefer the pointed type, soft sweet mush film and all! The film makes my mouth feel fresher and cleaner once its all swallowed.

I ate one recently and it had black specks too. I searched online and one webpage said they were precipitated tannins - whatever that means. ;-)

Fuzzysox,
I just looked up more info.
[www.seedtosupper.com]

There are firm ripe persimmons(Non-astringent), and soft ripe persimmons(Astringent).

Growing up in Japan, persimmons are my favorite fall fruit. The black spot is no problem. I never eat the skin though. Isn't it a little bitter?

In Japan, we sun dried the astringent persimmon in winter in the very cold winter air. The astringent ones that grow in Japan are too sour and bitter to eat raw so people in old times would dry them. My grandmother used to make them at home and whenever we visited her in winter we would see lines of persimmons hanging outside the windows shining orange in the snow. Soo beautiful... and soooo yummy!!!

The sweet taste gets concentrated over the winter and they are way better than raw persimmons. If you have a Japanese super market nearby, ask if they have "hoshigaki". That's what they are called in japanese simply meaning dried persimmons.

My husband who is Dutch also loved it when we used to live in Japan. We would fight for dried persimmons about who gets to eat how many.

I bought a persimmon advertised as a sharon fruit a few months back. I was really disappointed when I read this on Wikipedia:

"Sharon Fruit" is the trade name for D. kaki fruit that has been artificially ripened with chemicals.

Fuzzy!

First pumpkins and now persimmons! Seriously, the black specs are fine. Enjoy!

And hey, be nice to those cockroaches. As I say to my kids about bugs (tongue in cheek of course!) they won't eat much.

Take care,

David

i just ate my first one ever today..thanks to your post! it was yummy yummy. i ate the skin as well. i ate it all! and bought a bunch for the week. i ate the smaller tougher not as sweet kind. so yummy and thanks for your posts!!

d

heh...I don't find the skin to be very juicy or appealing.

do what you like I suppose

i love the skin!

I also enjoyed the skin...but to each his own...

I love persimmons! I sometimes freeze one and enjoy little frozen slices of it with a gooey date on top. So so good.

I live in a major city

and i have the LOW DOWN

on where ripe persimmon is at

people just chuck the super ripe ones in a bucket or by the bakers dozen in a cellophane wrap with a 1 dollar price tag

I make the rounds on my bike to 3-4 disparate markets and come back with bundles for a few bones

whereas i think they go for $2 a piece (conventional) at whole foods.

whoever says that eating only organic (especially in the FALL!) ain't limiting has NOT seen my persimmon cache'

people can KEEP their organic banana prison meals...GAG

i LOVEEEE persimmons!!!!

i love them SO much in fact that... that.. that.. uh... well..

yeah...

it leaves me speechless

i really do

Saw this in an article at [www.msnbc.msn.com]

Some say this luscious, lusty red fruit is Eve's original apple, but what the pomegranate truly banishes is cancer risk. The fruit's deep red juice contains polyphenols, isoflavones, and ellagic acid, elements researchers believe make up a potent anticancer combo. It's been shown to delay the growth of prostate cancer in mice, and it stabilizes PSA levels in men who've been treated for prostate cancer. And now University of Wisconsin at Madison researchers have learned that pomegranate may also inhibit lung-cancer growth. If you currently smoke, have smoked in the past, or hang around in smoky places (Cleveland, for instance), the juice of the fruit could bolster your defenses.

the astringent persimmons ripen after a frost.

if you dedide to give these amazing fruits a try, you can ripen them to heavenly sweetness just by placing them in the freezer. pull them out as you desire and let them defrost.... what you will get is a sweet jelly ball of yum-yum!

do it!

love,
*m*

thanks for your posts everyone, they are so interesting!
I loooooove persimmons!!
Im so addicted to them right now that I bought about 50 of them from that little stand haha :p
actually out of the 50 ive only had about 12
I can't get the damn things to ripen!
Its been about a week and a half and they are exactly the same.. I must have put them out in the sun at least 5 times hoping it would make them juicy and appetizing, but no lol
Its driving me crazy, I just keep staring at them everyday wondering when theyll be ready to let me eat them, but they insist that I not take one nibble...
they want to maintain their youth.
lol

Too bad you bought 50 persimmons and most still aren't budging. Do what Anaken does. Find the "overripe" ones. That's what I've been doing too and man I guess I'm in Eden. I live in Korea and there are several varieties that I'm enjoying. I get the overripe ones for so cheap. Why don't others eat them? Well, I've gotten a couple of people interested so that's a start. When they're soft soft, they're so so fabulous. Then I wonder why people prefer them hard. I don't have nearly the attraction for them when they're still hard. Sugar balloons are for me. I eat the skin. Always. Even when the skin is a bit thick and sort of detracts from the enjoyment of the flavor packed pulpy sugar water inside.

Get 'em while the gettins good. And it sure is good.



This way is not compatible with Zen practice. This way IS Zen practice. - Dr. Doug Graham

Nothing whatsoever should be attached to. - Buddha

I like these, too... although I've had a few that got really over-over-ripe and started to taste "bad". I can easily sit down and eat a whole pack of the dried ones in one sitting, too. Like figs, these are just "persimmons" and nothing else. Thank God for a few dried fruits like these that can be bought without having several questionable artificial preservatives, flavorings or other additives in them. [Some of those kinds make me feel a little weird or ill.]

I gather uncertified organic persimmons in November and ship them to raw fooders all over the country for $2/lb. plus shipping ($9 for a 7-pound box). They are the Hachiya variety, picked late enough to ensure ripening but early enough to allow time for shipping. Personally, I eat 100-150 pounds of Hachiya persimmons over the winter and they last me until mid-January typically. If you want more info, I've been discussing my experiences with persimmons on my discussion group this past week (join or view public archives via link on my home page). Or you can write to me privately.

Cheers,
Nora
www.RawSchool.com

m Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> the astringent persimmons ripen after a frost.
>
> if you dedide to give these amazing fruits a try,
> you can ripen them to heavenly sweetness just by
> placing them in the freezer. pull them out as you
> desire and let them defrost.... what you will get
> is a sweet jelly ball of yum-yum!
>
> do it!
>
> love,
> *m*



Interesting!!

I like to eat the astringent persimmons with kiwis & bananas, all sliced up on a plate like a fruit salad - I find the 3 different types of flavors blend together especially well.