Dates are in season. Very good Medjool in local market. Two lbs for 7.99.
I asked the cashier at a local orchard’s store if I could mix and match in their half-peck bags, and she said yes. Then I looked around and found Autumn Crisp (which I’ve had before and wasn’t excited about), Fuji, Gala, Cortland, and Mac in addition to the Honeycrisp. So, I filled up the bag with Honeycrisp. Some were almost all red and I tasted one of those on the drive home. It had the same juiciness and crunch, but no acid kick whatsoever. Still good but not what I’m looking for in a HC. I had another Honeycrisp, with the stripes, and it was better. I think I pretty much have to add a Honeycrisp to my order with Cummins. I like them too much for fresh eating to only get a stick of it for the Crimson Crisp “mother” tree that I’m planting next spring.
There were just a few lonely Fantasia nectarines and Redskin peaches and only one Redskin with any red color on the skin, which I took. After they sell out today they’re done with peaches and nectarines for the season.
Those are huge, thanks for sharing. Looks like they hardly have any seeds. Of all the varieties you have how would you rank them flavor wise?
To tell you the truth that most of the Peterson’s pawpaw collections and Mango and the rest of the name brands tasted very good and almost the same pawpaw fragrance. I would pick the most productive and the largest fruits with less seeds like Wabash, Shenandoah, Halvin, and Susquehanna for more bang for your bucks.
Tony
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OK, some of you may recall how I sort of went crazy (with enjoyment) last year when my Saijo Persimmon produced for the first time I got to try several of the fruits for the first time. Well, this year they are back and I’m loosing my mind all over again. Thank goodness my excitement last year convinced me to do something unusual, and that was to buy and plant 3 new trees of something I already had growing (saijos).
Fruit growers and fruit lovers, please listen to me. I’m no expert but I grow about 40 types of fruit and this year confirms it: Saijo persimmons are my very favorite fruit for fresh eating out of all of them. I grow a few other persimmons (astringent and non astringent) and enjoy them, but nothing like Saijos. If you’ve had a hachiya or chocolate or fuyu or wild (the other 4 I grow) or other persimmons and have decided you just aren’t overly in love with the taste or texture of persimmons, I implore you not to make up your mind until you actually try a saijo. They are like a sweet little ball of jello but a flavor better than any flavor you can imagine.
Anyway, this is the second year in a row I have raved like a luneytoon about this fruit So I’ll try to restrain myself in the future, but I do wish you could all try one. Those that have, I’d love hearing if you think saijo really is “the one”?
Here is a photo of couple of mine. I should have shown the inside too. Boy are they good! Oh…let me add one critical thing. Not only are these my favorite tasting fruit, but they are hands down my absolutely easiest fruit to grow. I can honestly say that I did not do one single thing to this tree in the last 12 months except throw a few hand fulls of 10-10-10 applied once. I didn’t spray it a single time or even prune it at all. Yet it is extremely healthy, large, fast growing, green, and fruited like crazy. hmmmm…best tasting and easiest to grow. That is a winner… ha
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A friend from the Smokey mountains sent me some 7 years ago to try and I loved the taste. Too bad that it is not cold hardy here for me. I think it can only handled the cold around -8 F .
Tony
I really hate to hear that Tony. With your knowledge and experience with persimmons, I’d have really like to have heard your thoughts on growing saijo vs others. I am curious, though. What is your favorite of those you grow?
I got a potted Great Wall and it produced 6 fruits per year for an astringent type. It has a smaller squat shaped and sweet taste. I topped worked my 8 years old Nikita’s Gift to a Rossyanka because I am tired of Winter protected it even though it was so tasty and almost as good as Saijo. I got 4 potted Tam Kam and I let them carried a few fruits on each tree and the fruits are just turned yellowish. They are large fruits and supposed to taste sweeter than the Fuyu. I also topworked my Ichi non astringent Kaki to JT-02 because of the Winter protection also. My main focus now is on the Hybrids. JT-02 is the top tasting hardy Hybrid that came out of Japan with 50/50 % American/Asian. It tasted awesome with a very rich sweet flavor and not that far from Saijo but very cold hardy. It survived the -18F this year. So I will bark grafted more of it this coming Spring. The other Hybrid that I am trailing is Kasandra. It has a oval shaped fruit. The leaves are huge dark lush green just like Great Wall as one of the parents. It also survived the -18F this year with a few inches on top died back so it is very cold hardy also. Cliff said it tasted as good as any astringent Kaki out there. So I had high hopes for for these two Hybrids.
Tony.
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Today I paid a visit to our generous friend Brent (@hoosierbanana) in his farm and sampled about a dozen of excellent fig varieties… Adriatic JH was the best among them, so I got a small plant from him. Very nice work that he has done with potting figs in fabric pots and in compost sacs for commercial sale. The farm is in a serene hidden location of West Chester, fantastic place to work in away from sound and air pollution… Thanks very much Brent for your generosity with the figs and with your time today!
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I haven’t eaten this yet but today my sis dropped off a Cherimoya that she picked up for me at an Asian farmers market. I googled how to tell if it’s ripe and it said it should feel like a ripe avacado. A little give to it. This one is very hard. It feels very dense and heavy. How long can I expect before it gets ripe?
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My wife’s from the land of the Guyabano AKA soursop (related to this, but not the same thing), she agrees with me. This looks too far gone to us.
But… the guy this video has a video has a ripe cherimoya that’s actually brown.
While mine resembles that in color, mine is not soft like the one shown in the video. I would think it if was too far gone it would be mushy. Mine feels very heavy for it’s size.
I’ve tried getting cherimoya here, and never had luck. I’ve never seen it in the Philippines. What I can say is that I have tried soursop from Buford Hwy Farmer’s Market in Atlanta and from Chinatown in NYC. Both times it was a total disappointment. With that fruit, I’m sure they pick it way too green in order to get it to the US market. It’s one of those fruits that’s among the best I’ve ever had when obtained in the Philippines and here it’s just not good.
These are all in the same family as the paw paw. It seems like the whole family is just not ideal for the market. @mamuang might have some more experience buying and eating cherimoya here.
No, Not cherimoya. I’ve never been a fan of it . I prefer sugar apples to cherimoya by a mile.
@tonyOmahaz5, has far more experience with it and soursop than me.
I suspect its about as ripe as it gets. They turn darker as it ripens. Cherymoya is mild compaired to its relatives.
It was really nice to meet you and your son, most people’s eyes glaze over when I start talking about figs so the pleasure was all mine 
I think you will do very well with your fig trees.
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Late for a picture but the grands and I made two cobblers and they were delicious.
- Apple, pear, and muscadine without the seed or hull. Had a mostly apple pie taste.
- Apple, whole muscadine without the seed. Hulls were put through my smoothie machine first. The cobbler taste similar to blackberry.
Darn! Want to see the grands with your fabulous fruit! Do you think they are inspired to have trees too, or are they too young to know?
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