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11/9/12

Persimmons


I ♥ persimmons. I remember eating persimmons as a little girl in Moscow and enjoying the sweet flesh while avoiding the dark brown seeds. Yes, persimmons in Russia had seeds...as did the grapes and watermelons. Of course ever since moving to the States I'm too good for seeds ;)

It amazes me that so many people either don't know what persimmons are or have never tried them.

Imagine my surprise when I found huge branches of a persimmon tree just laying on a street in my neighborhood.

Say what!?

Remember the Hurricane Sandy that happened a few weeks ago? Luckily, I wasn't affected much other than losing my electricity for about 4 hours. Since the government was shut down Monday (and Tuesday!) after the Sunday storm, I decided to go for a walk after being cooped up in my condo for a few days.

As I was walking around my neighborhood, I saw two HUGE tree branches on a side of the street with bright orange objects on them. The closer I got, the more amazed I became: the branches were covered with persimmons!!! The owner of the tree probably had no idea what they were cutting down.

So what did I do? I finished my walk, went back home, picked up a large bag and a pair of scissors and made my way back to the branches and cut as many of the persimmons as I could. I even shared a few with my friend Cindy.



These persimmons were completely underripe, so I put them in a paper bag once I got home and have been eating them as they ripen. They are incredibly sweet and addicting.

Here are a few recipes YOU can make with persimmons:







Have you tried persimmons? How do you like to eat them?

Have a lovely weekend!

11 comments:

Rachel Cooks said...

These look like great recipes! I was just looking at persimmons the other day, thinking I had no idea what to do with them or what they taste like. Now I definitely need to try them!

Olga @ MangoTomato said...

I guess I have great timing ;) You can use them the same way you'd use mangoes. Let me know what you end up making.

Anna said...

I just ate my first one of the season yesterday! love them. how lucky to find a tree?

DeliciousDish said...

What a great find. I'm not sure if I've ever eaten a persimmon.

Cecilia said...

It's raining persimmons! Great recipes.

Zomppa said...

What beautiful fruits! Reminds me of a fairy tale....

Laura Mleko said...

Just making sure you know the difference between Hachiya, the kind you found and Fuyu persimmons. Hachiya you need to let ripen completely until the flesh is soft or it will pucker your mouth with bitterness . Fuyu's the shorter more tomato shaped, can be eaten when firm and crisp. Fuyu's are shown in the bottom three pics. Love persimmons, they are in season now!

Olga @ MangoTomato said...

Laura, you are absolutely right about the difference in the two major kinds of persimmons. That's why I had to let mine sit in the paper bag until they were a 100% ripe!

discojing said...

this is so cool olga! how many did you end up being able to salvage?

Margaret High said...

Wow, how interesting! I never see local persimmons - I'm on the East Coast, too. I thought they were a midwestern thing. I'd love to come across some on a walk like you did. Better yet, maybe I should see if we can plant a tree in our area.

Evi said...

One of the recent issues of Vegetarian Times had a whole section about persimmons! But I might have to try out that muffin. I'm not a huge fan of them, but maybe it's because I haven't had them the right way...