Persimmons - Hachiya and Fuyu

Persimmons are very prominent in Asian culture.   On the wall in Betty's study, there is a painting of four persimmons by Chang Dai-Chien   (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhang_Daqian).
"Four Persimmons" is considered a lucky phrase showing "All Wishes Come True".      

We have several persimmon trees in our yard.  This one is about 30 years old planted next to our vegetable garden that has a drip system   Among all the trees, this one gets the most water.    Even with good water supply, the trees usually go through a cycle of good crop or bad crop from year to year.  2016 is a bumper crop year for this tree, it has thousand of fruits hanging on it.   When the tree still have leaves, the fruits are pre-ripe.

A far sight of the persimmon tree after the leaves all dropped.

A close-up of the ripe Fuyu persimmons.

The ripe persimmons are so heavy on the tree limbs that support sticks are needed.

These are the ripe Fuyu persimmons picked from the tree.   Fuyu persimmons look like tomatoes but they sure taste different.  Fuyu is very sweet and non-astringent, ready to eat from the tree.   The skin is a little tough so it's best to peel before eating.  



We also have the Hachiya variety persimmons.

The Hachiya is beautiful to look at but do not eat them before ripe, it's astringent.   It contains very high levels of soluble tannins, if eaten before completely softened, your tongue will feel thickened with glue.

When the Hachiyu persimmon ripens, it looks as if it's transparent.   It's extra sweet and soft.  Most people like to use Hachiyu for baking cookies.

Here are the Hachiya persimmons picked from the tree waiting for them to ripe.   If left on the tree, the birds and squirrels would take them before they are ready to eat.   Usually we'll see a small hole then the fruit is abandoned as the squirrels and birds would be bothered by the astringent taste as human do.



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