Persimmons, 2019

Seattlefiggirl, I think you are right either his left and right are opposite ours or the photo has been flipped.

@tonyOmahaz5 and @PharmerDrewee,
I went to a Vietnamese grocery store today. They have stocked up tons of tropical and subtropical fruit for the upcoming Vietnames and Chinese New Year.

Rojo Brillante is $14 for a box of 14 and Fuyu $10 for a box of 10. Cheaper than what I bought from Walmart a while back.

More importantly, these RB tasted much better and sweeter than the ones I bought from Walmart. These new fruit are redder (more ripe?).

The ones I bought from Walmart were a disappointment. I kept them in a paper bag with a bunch of bananas for over a week. They did not get softer. They shriveled and became rubbery and tasted only mildly sweet.z

I am glad RB from this new box taste a lot better. Otherwise, my experience with store-bought RB would have been unimpressed.

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I will call to see if they have them on sale here. Thanks for the head’s up.

I think those are imported from Spain @mamuang
I grabbed a box yesterday. You are right. The impending lunar new year has the markets very busy!


Some other produce and wild Alaskan fish from the farmers market too.

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I’ll have to check my local store. They don’t usually have fresh fruit, but this would be the time to do it.

@mamuang Based on your tip, I went to Philadelphia today and after stopping at three different Asian groceries, I found the RB at the third. Bought two boxes at the same price you paid and a third box of a Fuyu type called Sharoni, from Spain too. Thanks and Happy New Year!

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@Ahmad and @PharmerDrewee,
I googled the names on the tags, they indded came from Valencia, Spain.

I bought the Fuyu and the non-Fuyu (not really sure if they are Rojo Brilliante or not). Both tasted sweeter than what I had had in the past.

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The non-Fuyu that I got was definitely Rojo Brillante, the box had a tag on it that indicated the variety name; see below:

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I wish I were as observant as you are :grin:

These Fuyu from Spain are sweeter than other Fuyu I bought from this same store on other occasions. Next time I will check where these fruit are imported from.

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These Fuyu from Spain might be Sharon kaki or a variety called Triumph. The shape is slightly different than the ones from California. If you buy the whole box, the variety is often printed on the side.

Yes, like @Ahmad says, it’s called Sharoni.

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The large round kakis are all “Rojo brillante” which are grown only in Spain and are subjected to a protected designation of origin called Ribera del Xuquer which is an area in the province of Valencia. The squarisch lobed ones are the “Triumph” variety which are also grown in Spain and commercialised as “Sharoni”. “Sharoni” is a commercial reaction to counter the persimmon production of the Triumph variety in the Sharon valley in Israel which is sold as “Sharon”.
Both “Triumph” and “Rojo brillante” are astringent varieties! they are both subjected to a treatment with CO2 gas to remove astringency and make them edible while still hard and still retain all their qualities. The fact that they are sweeter is linked to the fact that in general astringent varieties are sweeter than non astringent varieties. Both actually have one of the highest sugar contents of all varieties. When you turn these varieties in hard edible persimmons they will of course beat any natural non astringent persimmon…
Many people are tricked into believing that they can plant these varieties in their garden and pick these same crunchy persimmons straight from the tree…this is a mere illusion…

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I have a young tree so not sure how much I’ll have when I do pruning in late winter. Send me a PM towards the end of Feb as a reminder.

Thank you Dimitri, I will.

I went to my local Asian store over lunch. No fresh persimmons, but they did have some packages of the dried ones from China, so I picked up a bag to try.

Jay,
I googled Asian markets in Nashua. Look like there are several of them in town. Hopefully, you can find a Vietnamese or a Chinese one that carries these fruit. This is the best time of the year to find them in large number.

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Thanks! 2 of the 3 I know of from Google are actually Indian groceries that I haven’t been to yet. The third one is more general East Asian, with a Thai focus. It has good stuff, but they don’t usually have fresh fruit for some reason (they did have some Asian pears yesterday). Also a slightly different selection than the Chinese or Korean owned stores that I grew up with. I’m just glad there’s one in town. Fortunately, I was able to get some good persimmons at a reasonable price when I went to CA last week.

@tonyOmahaz5, @PharmerDrewee, et al,

Got this batch from a Vietnamese grocery store.

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Looks much more ripe!

Ate the first onetoday. Very juicy. Sweet enough to be good.

Not sure if Bright Red-is the name of a variety. $14 for box of 10. I like these more than Rojo Brillante bought from the same store a while back.

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