I had some concern that the gin (as opposed to a vodka) would impart an unexpected flavor. Judging by the fact that you didn’t mention anything about tasting any juniper in the persimmons I reckon that you didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary?
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I didn’t detect any of the juniper/gin flavor at all, nor did my wife. I found this surprising, since I usually can detect a bit of the alcohol/vodka taste initially when I treat Hachiya this way. That goes away in a few hours or maybe a day after I remove the Hachiya persimmons from the bag, but it is there initially.
Perhaps there is something about the hybrids that related to this, since it took 5 days to reach non-astringency and I usually get that in 3 days with pure Kaki - maybe something about the speed of absorption or the amount that is absorbed?
That said, I would generally always use vodka, but just didn’t have any on hand, except for some vanilla vodka someone had given us that I didn’t want to mess with and it also had slightly lower proof so I wasn’t sure if it would work as well.
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@ncdabbler How is your Sestronka producing this year? I believe you had a nice harvest last year and I’m hoping that continues. I have one in a pot I didn’t plant yet since I had heard it wasn’t very productive, but I would love for that to be proved wrong.
@zendog I’ve had another good Sestronka harvest this year. There’s only one fruit left on the tree now, but we’ve had about 40-50 fruit in all. My Sestronka tree is still young, and I’ve been pruning for structure. So I imagine it would’ve produced even more fruit this year if I’d pruned less. It’s still one of my favorite persimmons in terms of flavor and texture. I’ve had more Kasandra fruit this year to compare, and I think they’re about on par in terms of flavor and texture, but Kasandra has significantly smaller fruit than Sestronka and starts ripening earlier. My JT-02 fruit haven’t ripened yet and are just starting to turn yellow/orange, and my tree has a much smaller crop than last year. JT-02 has a watery texture, so my favorite way to eat it is dried. Rosseyanka fruit are all orange but still pretty firm.
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Thanks. That’s great to here. Did you get a chance to compare Sestronka to Nikita before you lost it? I consider Nikita the queen of persimmons that I’ve tasted so far. My Sestronka is still in a pot and while it has set a few fruit all have dropped so far.
Yes, I did compare Sestronka and Nikita’s Gift side-by-side and posted about it here: Hybrid Persimmons Future Look Great - #1365 by ncdabbler I like Nikita’s Gift too - the texture and flavor are excellent, and it has slightly bigger fruit on average than my Sestronka has so far (but my NG was also an older tree if that’s a factor). For flavor I would give a slight edge to Sestronka and Kasandra, but only slightly. So far, but Sestronka has been a more consistent producer (NG tended to alternate between heavy and light crops). EDIT: I found my post from last year in this thread and added it above. I guess Kasandra is a lot tastier this year - I wasn’t as impressed last year, but this year they’ve been very good
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Does Sestronka have more american flavor in your tastings? That’s what Cliff says so curious
Compared to Nikita’s Gift, I would agree that Sestronka has more American flavor, though it’s still an intermediate between kaki and virginiana.
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Those are some tiny Nikita’s Gift fruit in the top right of your picture - they look smaller than Kasandra. In my experience, Kasandra and Rosseyanka have been significantly smaller than NG. Edit: I have also noticed with NG that the individual fruit size really depends on the total number of fruit on the tree. The fruit size can vary a lot depending on whether there’s a big or small crop in a given season.
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These fruits were from Cliff England orchard. Not sure if his orchard effected by the drought this year to cause smaller fruit sizes on Nikita’s Gift.
Tony
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I got my NG scionwood from Cliff, so I know I’m dealing with the same genetics. The drought is a likely explanation.
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Hi Ram,
Looks delicious! Is this straight from tree or did you ripen indoors? Did you have to treat for astringency?
Today I tried one of my Cardinals which fell from tree last week. I kept it under a glass in my sunny window for 3 days, but today it was still too astringent to consume. So I still need to determine how to treat this one. My Zima Khourma was nice and sweet and non astringent after picking this week and only 3 days indoors ripening.
Cardinal lighter color on top.
Dennis
Kent, Wa
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Yes, drought was apparently a challenge for the crop this year.
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Dennis, it was tree ripened.
This is an excellent early variety for our area. It appears earlier than Kasandra and Nikita’s gift.
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Is yours the same variety that Tony had in his pic about 10 days ago? Curious about the skin color difference?
Dennis
Could anyone weigh in growing in zone 5 if gift of sophie (Dar Sofiyivky), Sosnovskaya, Chuchupaka and V. Derevyanko are actually hardy to this zone?
Any information on if they break dormancy early in Spring and might get damaged by late frosts (I’ve heard this could be a problem for JT-02).
Thanks!
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They seem about 50g on average. Between 1-4 seeds in each. All my persimmons are pollinated by kaki males.
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