My persimmons are still at least a year out from producing anything, but that hasn’t stopped me from daydreaming about large harvests. I’ve been learning more and more just how much of a workhorse persimmons can be from a self-reliance/homesteading perspective. I thought I’d start this thread to catalog some of those uses. I’d love to hear from folks who have tried some of the more unusual uses.
Fresh fruit - the obvious choice
Baked goods, ice creams, and other treats
Frozen persimmon pulp - for use throughout the year
Dried pulp/fruits/fruit leather - another way to extend the harvest!
Hoshigaki - a variant on drying, creates a unique texture and flavor experience Making Hoshigaki
Beers and other fermented beverages - so many examples of making fruit beers, or adding to traditional beer or mead. Michael Twitty’s traditional “red straw” persimmon beer sounds especially interesting: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/michael-twitty-persimmon-beer
Who knows? Maybe in a few years I’ll have more than I know what to do with and can start making vinegar and lacquer! Anyone know of any other rare uses I missed?
Made some simple jam last year with some very ripe, super sweet Nakitas Gift pulp. We cut the sugar in half because it was sooo sweet.
For regular DV the recipe should work just fine but I haven’t tried it yet.
2 cups pulp
2 cups sugar
1/2 a lemon
Juice lemon, throw out seeds, throw in peel ( pectins in the peel)
Simmer until it thickens. Voilà
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100-46 is the most precocious persimmon I have. It bore fruit the next year after I grafted it. It produces so much that it will break the branches if you don’t take measures to support it.
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That may not be the norm… but some varieties can start producing pretty quick.
As with everything, “it depends.” I’ve seen reports of first year grafts holding on to and ripening fruit, and reports of trees still dropping all or most fruit 10 years in. I think 3-5 years is the most common range I see cited for years to fruit from the size tree you’d be able to buy. Pollination, tree size, variety can all play a role.
I like freezing DV persimmon to eat individually. I pick out the best, least damaged fruit, then clean and wash them. Set them on a cookie sheet and stick them in the freezer. Shortly after they are frozen, I wrap each one in aluminum foil, then put them all in a ziplok. Defrost on the counter top, and pop them into your mouth. Yum.
In The Flavor Bible, Page and Dornenburg list flavor pairings recommended by a panel of chefs interviewed for the book, and the recommendations skew very heavily towards persimmon pudding flavors. The highly recommended pairings are brandy, cinnamon, cream, grapes, hazelnuts, honey, lemon, orange, pecans, pomegranates, salads, sugar, vanilla, walnuts. I assume everybody they interviewed was thinking of D. kaki but for the sweet applications I think they’d all work with D. virginiana.
If you can grow non-astringent types, they’re great as a fall salad – arugula or any peppery tender green, pecans (could be candied), crisp persimmons, some salty cheese (shaved parmigiano is great), good balsamic + olive oil.
I would expect there are more applications if you dive deep into regional Chinese, Japanese, or Korean cuisines, but outside of the more well-known uses I don’t recall reading about any. But perhaps this is a rabbit hole I need to dive down once my trees start producing…
