The 2008 persimmon season is peaking in South Australia. The above Riverland-grown fruit were purchased at the brilliant Sunday morning Adelaide Showgrounds Farmers Market. I first fell in love with persimmons in Turkey where they are known as ‘cennet meyvesi’ (‘heaven fruit).
Whereas persimmons sold in Turkey are largely astringent and sold very ripe, soft and squishy, I’ve only seen hard, non-astringent fruit in Australia.
Although hard non-astringent fruit are delicious to eat, I prefer softer persimmons and have a basket full ripening in the dining room.
humm… I didn’t know these had an English name. I’d never seen them before coming to Turkey.
I also saw persimmons in the central market when i was in Adelaide. I profer softer persimmons too, but my parents profer hard persimmons. 🙂
Yeah, Jake, I think Minnesota is a bit too cold to grow them them 🙂
TaeHwa, are there any differences between Korean and Australian persimmons?
I’m in Sydney at the moment and haven’t eaten a persimmon for a day-I will have to track down a place that sells them.
I love persimmons too Joe. But I do not like the ripe, squishy variety. I like the ‘Vanilla’ persimmons that you can eat like an apple.
Ardent, our tastes differ 🙂
A North Sydney grocer I visited today had both the soft persimmons (not squishy-ripe yet) and the harder version which they listed as “Fuji Fruit”. The fruit were very expensive at $3 to $5 each so, although tempted, I did not buy any.
I have a whole tree full of astringent persimmons in adelaide, trying to find a buyer for the lot.
Anyone interested?
lik_me at hotmail dot com