I liked mine a little flexible. Too dry is harder to chew on.
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How do you know when to eat these things? I’ve got a whole lot from my rosseyanka, but even when they’re about-to-fall-off squishy, there’s still some trace astringency in there. I power through, but I’d rather not.
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You have to ripen them off tree with an apple or banana. Or use the alcohol method.
I would never eat an astringent persimmon directly off the tree.
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Wait until the skin is a little crinkle and soft.
Someone answer this! I’ve been drying my persimmons for the first time ever this year, and I have been peeling mine but honestly I don’t know if it is really necessary? I also let mine get drying than it sounds like I need to, but I sort of like them better when they get hard and leathery (I’ve tried both ways and each is good)
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I did some without peeling and I liked them. The skin gets a bit more leathery but I actually liked it. Took some to work and no one complained so I’m not a peeler!
Katy
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I’ve got some in with the peeling now, so I’m glad you told me that. I’ve also experimented a lot with size. I’ve done some really thing so the end product is very hard and leathery, and I’ve done some so thick that they never get totally dry. Both make very different products but I like them both!
The neat thing about this is that I just didn’t much like my non-astringent varieties like fuyu when eaten the normal way like an apple. But dried I absolutely love them, so this has been fun. I also sprinkled some cinnamon and sugar on some before I put them in the dryer and that is really good too! Yep, I am becoming a bigger fan of persimmons all the time.
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I’ve just checked the ones on my tree and they are still very hard. Going down to 26 tonight. I hope I’m doing right by leaving them. The wild ones were always better after frost so I’m hoping they will ripen with the cold. If not I’ll pick some tomorrow and hit the dehydrator with them.
Katy
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How old is your rosseyanka, Tim? It looks productive.
I like the skin on my dried persimmons too, and it saves a lot of effort!
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She’s 4 years old now. This is the first year of successful fruit, but what success!
My Prok gave me 4 fruit. My two Asians (all of these are the same age) gave me “survived the winter, but just barely.”
It was Asian persimmons that got me into this hobby in the first place, but the American flavor has really grabbed my attention now.
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Here’s about half of what was left on the tree. Just beginning to soften. One was a little more than half ripe and I had to eat it. The last few bites had a bit of pucker to them but the ripe area was soooo good! These are now being entertained by a banana.
Katy
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picturesque 'simmon tree Katy! I am green(and orange) with envy 
and speaking of bananas, there are astringent bananas too(manzano, thai, burro’s), and you’d often need for peel to start thinning out until the full flavor/sweetness/zero astringency is attained. The pedestrian cavendish seems to produce the most ethylene, considering its rapid zero to mushiness/aromatics in just a couple days.
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Those look amazing!
Thanks for sharing pictures! 
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Rosseyanka’s first harvest ever is a big one! The tree is 4 or 5 years old.
I’m still struggling to get all the astringency out. Currently, they’re sitting with some bananas and some apples.
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Sitting with the apples worked well. One went bad and vinegary, but the rest were good. I brought a bunch to Thanksgiving and they were well-received by those who dared to eat squishy fruit.
The ones in the picture are all gone, but Monday I picked another two dozen that I’d left on the tree. They’ve been through some real freezes, but still they have some astringency! I think you need to pick these and then let them sit with some ethylene for a while to get them ripe.
Delicious when ripe, though.
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