Just noticed my persimmons the other day…they go from orange to red and ripe over night it seems. What is the best thing to do with them because I don’t care for them fresh? They are sweet and all but the flavor is too rich and not real desirable. Thinking of freezing them and adding them to my sweet potatoes pies this Nov. These are Fuyu variety. This is the 2nd fruiting year but got way more this go round.
4 Likes
While out walking around the family farm looking for our escaped old horse, I checked out a fruiting persimmon that is out by the road. The leaves have all disappeared from the tree, but there are still about two dozen fruit on the tree. Those are still a light orange, and I assume still too astringent. But there were a few on the ground that were a bit more ripe. I picked up a few and went on my way.
I have to admit they didn’t taste half bad. They had some sweetness to them, and just a little bit of astringency to them. It’s hard to identify the flavor tho. Maybe like a very ripe apricot?
This isn’t anything we planted, it’s just a wild persimmon (American?) growing out in the pasture. It’s about 10-12 feet tall.
2 Likes
I get hints of apricot, date, plum & pumpkin/squash… with that oversteeped cup-of-tea astringent aftertaste when I sample D. virginiana.
1 Like
Yes, that’d be a good description. Yes, they still had that little bit of astringent back kick to them. Some had rather large seeds, others didn’t.
They were OK, but I don’t think I’ll be planting any new persimmon trees, I’m not too enamored with the texture of them. But, it is cool to have a wild one growing on the farm. We also have some old apple trees on site, plus our wild black/rasp berries.
I actually have one of those wild persimmons in my orchard that I found in the wild and transplanted. The taste actually improves as the get more and more ripe. But I won’t pretend they ever get to the point of being just wonderful. HOWEVER…do not in any way let that affect your ideas or opinions about the good astringent asian varieties like saijo or chocolate or hachiya. As you’ve undoubtedly seen, just in the last couple weeks I’ve discovered the incredible taste of these things and trust me when I say it isn’t even close to the wild ones- much much better. Considering how little maintenance these trees need, it really is something more people should consider!
Thanks for the reply. I think I’d have to try some before I’d get an actual tree. We just don’t see many, if any, domesticated ones in our local stores.
I will give Walmart credit for selling aprium/plumcot varieties at their store. They had some Dapple Dandy fruit that I really liked.
I guess it’s true that most domesticated versions of some fruit taste better than the wild versions. Our wild blackberries are way too bitter and off-putting flavor wise for me, but my wife likes them. But, we did taste some tasty large ones at the orchard a couple months ago. Plus there are folks on here who have raved about the Prime Ark or Triple Crown varieties, enough that I think we may try getting some next year.
Our wild black raspberries are very good, but there’s just not a lot of them growing here.
1 Like
Wild blackberries vary a lot in flavor depending on the species. Here in SE Georgia, the sandhill blackberries (Rubus cuniafolia) are as good as the cultivated one, just smaller. However, R. betulafolia can be as bitter as a gourd and is always a little bitter. In our area it helps to know your blackberry species when foraging for blackberries in the wild. I have yet to encounter a local wild persimmon that isn’t astringent even when mushy soft. God bless.
Marcus
1 Like
I don’t blame you for wanting to taste something before you spend money and time on a tree! Walmart’s around here actually carry fuyu persimmons, but once again, don’t judge all domestic persimmons on the taste of the non-astringent fuyu variety. Even though I have one of those trees as well, I don’t really care for them at ALL. I know others here prefer them to the softer astringent varieties, but for me it isn’t even close. Also, if you didn’t see my note above, Publix grocery stores actually sell the astringent Hachiya persimmons, so if you have a publix in your area you can taste one there. But in my experience rural areas never have Publix. I have to go to Nashville to find one so you may not have much of a chance either.
@coolmantoole I’m not informed enough to know the difference in wild varieties, but you are 100% right…some of the patches I’ve found in my area actually taste much, much better than the domestic varieties I’ve had (though I haven’t tried Triplle Crowns or Prime Ark). They are smaller, but equally sweet and just better flavor. I actually tried to grow my own wild black berries by transplanting some plants from one of the good patches I knew about. They lived and even spread, but just never did produce. oh well.
2 Likes
On the old 'wait ‘til after a frost/freeze’ thing… if I waited that late, I’d never get a persimmon around here.
Best, most dependable persimmon in my orchard is also one of the first I ever grafted - ‘NC-10’. Annual heavy crop of fruits, with ripening usually beginning around 10 Sept. I’d been gathering daily and pulping/freezing or drying them for a couple of weeks… then got busy and had to let things go for a week or more. Went out to check the situation this past Saturday evening (7 Oct)… and they were all gone. None left in the tree to drop. ‘Keener’ tree, 20 ft away still has a few fruits remaining… drying/shriveling on the tree, but still with some astringency.
I think all the kakis that I’ve grafted through the years have died out… got a weeping kaki started this spring, but we’ll have to see how - or if - it survives. Saijo was good the couple of years it bore here before it died out.
Rosseyanka, grafted back around 1998, almost succumbed to a double-whammy of borers and the Polar Vortex a couple of years back. Killed it back to the main trunk. Is re-growing (I think) from above where I think the graft union is… but I guess until it fruits again, I won’t know for sure.
2 Likes
these are some of the wild persimmons I foraged last weekend. They are delicious, not astringent at all when ripe, and unfortunately seedy. That one in the middle is from a tree that produces all blue fruit every year.
@thecityman I strongly prefer these over any Asian persimmon I’ve had. I wonder if our tastes are very different, I’ve only had poor samples of Asians, or if you’ve not ever had a really good American?
@thecityman I strongly prefer these over any Asian persimmon I’ve had. I wonder if our tastes are very different, I’ve only had poor samples of Asians, or if you’ve not ever had a really good American?
7 Likes
How good wild American Persimmons are / get may well depend on region and variation in geographical population. I’ve never had one that wasn’t moth puckering no matter how ripe, soft and mushy it was. But that could be a SE Georgia thing. God bless.
Marcus
I’m very interested in your question and would very much like to know the answer. It’s almost impossible for me to imagine that you could eat one of your wild ones, then eat one of these saijos that I’ve been going so crazy over, and not think the Saijos are better. But of course that is really just an assumption based on personal taste isn’t it? But I really wish you could try one and hear your thoughts. A substantial part of it is the texture. My wild ones look almost exactly like yours (maybe small, hard to tell the size of yours- mine aren’t much bigger than a quarter in diameter). But (mine at least) have a lot of what I’d call fiberous and mushy texture. The Saijos, however, have a lighter texture that (texture only, not flavor) I’d compare to strongly mixed Jello. Its a cleaner texture. One thing we both agree with on wild ones and another thing I don’t like a lot about them is how seedy they are. I’ve been tasting wild persimmons all my life and they’ve all been about the same here in TN and KY both. But mine certainly do reach a point where there is no astringency at all, so that seems contrary to @coolmantoole’s experience.
I’m also pretty excited about your blue one! I wouldn’t be surprised if you get a lot of requests for scion wood from that one. Perhaps others have seen blue persimmons, but I sure haven’t. I can’t help but wonder if you couldn’t patent that thing and make some money off it! Others here will confirm or deny that possibility.
3 Likes
Someone posted pics of a black Asian persimmon on this site last year. That was an interesting idea and many folks asked about its flavor. The person would only say that it was the same as the orange ones. But one does not have to view this thread closely to realize that orange persimmons are not created equal. LOL! I wouldn’t mind having a black persimmon, but a little more detail about what it’s like would also be nice. God bless.
Marcus
1 Like
Does the blue retain the astringency? Every Blue I have ever found never really lost astringency
1 Like
I think I am growing a blue/black Kaki Huk Kam. It has not fruited yet but it should be easy to determine if not correct
1 Like
Wow, great report Kevin. I think I will certainly get me a Saijo Persimmons!
Since you are so close to where I have my orchard, I am curious on how your Peaches, Plums and Cherries did this year? 
1 Like
Not sure about that. I found some wild native ones growing just yesterday that fell of a tree with just a little shake of the tree. Very sweet, jelly like substance. Good stuff.
3 Likes
Does anyone have first-hand impressions of Giombo?
1 Like
The blue tastes like a typical orange native-inedibly astringent until ripe, then very tasty.
1 Like
Well that is good the few blues I have encountered always seemed to retain some astringency even when rotting ripe