Are you working with the esteemed Eliza Greenman?
Just noticed this threadâŚ
I think there may be a misunderstanding⌠you are using cold water!!! I have never ever heard of a method involving cold water. As far as I know, the âsubmersing in waterâ method involves warm water like 95-100F not cold water!!!
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Let me do little more research on the water temp. Thanks for your input. What ever we can do to be able to eat American persimmon, hybrids, or Kaki PCA hard, crunchy and sweet without the astringentcy is a plus.
Thanks
Tony
Here is what I gathered so far the immersion of PCA persimmons. I wonder if @jrd51 or @ramv
still have some yellow and firm In Kassandra to try again with warm water and leave them on the counter or somewhere warm?
Tony
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Yâall can prove me wrong, and Iâll be happy for it, but I have doubts about ever getting a persimmon picked as green as those Kasandras to ripen, by any method.
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I have four of the original seven. I submerged these in a pot with a sous vide device that will warm them. The original water was 85 F. The device is programmed to heat the water to 100 F, which may take roughly 20 minutes, then hold it at 100 F for 5 hours.
Itâs now 2:50 p.m. Iâve set an alarm for 8:00 p.m., when Iâll check. Stay tuned.
Edit: Itâs past 8 p.m. The fruits are still astringent. Sorry.
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@armyofda12mnkeys⌠I have not tried that.
I tried it on some that were in a mostly âsoft but still firmâ orange state (like the outer parts of it was starting to become slightly soft but not soft enough).
It did not lose complete astringency the way an asian persimmon does, but I could eat it without spitting it out.
A slight astringency was there (lets say somewhere between 15-30% of full astringency), there was that slight puckering feeling during/afterwards but again not enough to spit it out.
If anyone else wants to try dehydrating american persimmon, let me know if you get the same results.
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I tried the water-soaking treatment with unripe kaki fruit (Giboshi on the left and Miss Kim on the right). I changed the water every day for three days. They may have lost some astringency but they were still astringent after three days. I left them on my patio, and the first day the high temps were in the 80s, but the last two days have been in the 60s. So it probably wasnât warm enough. I will try again with warmer water for a shorter time.
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Thanks for doing the trial.
Tony
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Today I put 1 of my Zima Khurma persimmons (yellow and still hard) in your ice water bath, pricked with a straight pin as described, will see on Thursday the result. Also trying @TNHunter process with paper towel & glass cover for same period of time for the second trial (this one is already orange and soft). Since I have only 7 total this year itâs a small sample.
Dennis
Kent, wa
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I have Ichi, Nikita and Rojas in containers. They are just turning orange but still hard.
We might get down to 28 F on Thursday and Friday nights.
Should I pick them out will they be okay. Weather warms a bit after that.
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I donât know about the Asian persimmons, but our native American persimmons are much better after a frost. Mid-Missouri
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My Ichi fruit have often experienced ~30 F without harm. But once they turn even slightly orange, theyâll ripen indoors. And I doubt theyâd make much progress outdoors with cold nights. So itâs best to pick them.
I donât grow Nikitaâs Gift or Roja Brillante, but I assume that the story is the same â with the added complication that these are astringent persimmons that need to be fully ripe to lose their astringency. I donât think theyâll ever be non-astringent in cold weather. On the other hand, they can ripen and lose astringency indoors.
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If I waited for a frost, Iâd never get a good American persimmon. Mine - including any decent natives - are ripe and long gone, weeks before a frost, month or two before a âkillingâ freeze.
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We used to dry persimmons back when my kids were young. In the drought years of the late 80âs, the fruit on the ground would be on itâs way to becoming date-like. Our wimpy light bulb heated dryers wouldnât dry them when whole and round, but weâd flatten them, which broke the skin and gave more surface area for drying. Of course they were ripe and on the ground when collected, and we were collecting from trees that made good tasting fruit. When thouroughly dried, the fruit were heavy compared to most dried fruit, there was a lot of calories in them. Weâd take them on journeys as filling snack food on the drive. Occasionally thereâd be a faint hint of tannin in the mouth after eating a half dozen or so.
Let me see, I remember there were some in a jar that had sat around in the freezer for a few years. Yes, here they are. These were never even flattened, must have been a really dry autumn. I recognize them by size and shape as being from a very nice tree in town. Small fruit but a very generous tree and handy to pick up in the mowed lawn. One of the best things about drying native persimmons is that the flesh pulls back from the seeds, and the seeds will simply slide when the dried fruit is broken open⌠And tho I know I didnât dry these persimmons any more recently than 2022, they are very good tasting. Theyâd make a survival food that would keep itâs flavor for a few years.
As Carol Deppe said about the best foods for uncertain times: Easy to grow, easy to harvest, easy to store, and easy to prepare. She recommended Corn, beans, squash, potatoes and eggs. I would add sweet potatoes and American persimmons.
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Kathleen, I was sorry to miss a portion of your presentation at NNGA! Could you share here the results you shared there? About how virtually every persimmon cultivar is essentially EG, on a genetic similarity scale from 1-5?
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Wish there was a list of the varieties not related to EG. Iâm trying to add those. Wild persimmons present a variety in taste, while most of the named varieties pretty much give you EG.
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Many years ago I substituted pear cake recipe with sliced persimmons (shop bought) because they were unusually astringent assuming it would solve my problem. They were still very astringent after turned into a cakeâŚ
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Itâs not a hard task to create such a list. I studied pedigree for as much cultivars as I could. To make it simple every clone from breeding programs (McDaniel, Gordon/Slate, Claypool, Lehman, Campton) is somehow related to EG. Only exceptions are Killen, Garretson and maybe Golden Sumpreme (as they originated before typical breeding but they are seedlings of EG).