Not bad, good.
You might think that mid-February is a little late to be eating persimmons. I thought so too until I tried it.
I picked a lot of hachiya persimmons off a tree in my aunt's front yard in the San Joaquin valley (California) at Thanksgiving, and they've been ripening and aging on my balcony in Los Angeles ever since, nearly 3 months now.
They reached a nice, soft, edible ripeness in the middle of December. But I noticed from the ones I ate in early January that they were still getting better and better.
The picture above is of a persimmon I ate a couple of days ago. It was one of the best I have ever had in my life.
A mexican girlfriend I had many years ago said that the best persimmons were the ones you picked up off the ground. I didn't believe her until I ate these 2 1/2 month old persimmons carefully ripened and aged on my balcony. Now I think she knew what she was talking about. I've never seen persimmons in Mexico, but maybe that's another blog post.
The flavor of this persimmon was incredible. It had the usual sweet, spicy, cinnamon and tea flavors you get from any ripe persimmon, though it had perhaps mellowed a little. It had also developed a wonderfully sensuous creaminess. But best of all was this incredible burnt toffee flavour that came through in parts of the fruit (especially the slightly darker part that you see in the photo above).
So my advice to you is the next time you get a hachiya persimmon let it ripen. Outside. For a long time.
I suspect the alternating cold nights and mild days of a Los Angeles winter must have something to do with the amazing flavour this fruit developed. Some of the other persimmons on my balcony have now started to go bad. But I think that is often when fruit is at its best - right on the edge between ripe and spoiled.
You can't buy fruit like this in stores!
You might think that mid-February is a little late to be eating persimmons. I thought so too until I tried it.
I picked a lot of hachiya persimmons off a tree in my aunt's front yard in the San Joaquin valley (California) at Thanksgiving, and they've been ripening and aging on my balcony in Los Angeles ever since, nearly 3 months now.
They reached a nice, soft, edible ripeness in the middle of December. But I noticed from the ones I ate in early January that they were still getting better and better.
The picture above is of a persimmon I ate a couple of days ago. It was one of the best I have ever had in my life.
A mexican girlfriend I had many years ago said that the best persimmons were the ones you picked up off the ground. I didn't believe her until I ate these 2 1/2 month old persimmons carefully ripened and aged on my balcony. Now I think she knew what she was talking about. I've never seen persimmons in Mexico, but maybe that's another blog post.
The flavor of this persimmon was incredible. It had the usual sweet, spicy, cinnamon and tea flavors you get from any ripe persimmon, though it had perhaps mellowed a little. It had also developed a wonderfully sensuous creaminess. But best of all was this incredible burnt toffee flavour that came through in parts of the fruit (especially the slightly darker part that you see in the photo above).
So my advice to you is the next time you get a hachiya persimmon let it ripen. Outside. For a long time.
I suspect the alternating cold nights and mild days of a Los Angeles winter must have something to do with the amazing flavour this fruit developed. Some of the other persimmons on my balcony have now started to go bad. But I think that is often when fruit is at its best - right on the edge between ripe and spoiled.
You can't buy fruit like this in stores!
