How to ripen persimmons
The tannins in unripe
persimmons are thoroughly unpleasant, so it's no wonder that folklore
has arisen to teach us how to ripen the fruits. Every real
Appalachian knows that frost ripens persimmons, and some of us even go
so far as to simulate the frost. I once put a bag of persimmons
in the freezer then pulled them out a week later, hoping they would be
sweet and ripe. When I went over to visit my movie star neighbor
last week, I saw that he had laid his persimmons outside in a platter
so that a hard freeze would ripen them up. Too bad we were both
on the wrong track.
Scientists have discovered
that persimmons ripen like most other fruits, and that frost near the
time of ripening is purely coincidental. That said, you can
hasten the ripening of your fruits by putting persimmons in a plastic
bag with an apple. The ethylene released by the apple will make
your persimmon ripen up as long as the persimmon fruit has already
become somewhat soft on the tree.
What do you do if you bite
into a persimmon and the puckery astringency makes you spit it right
back out? I tested a few puckery persimmons on our flock, and our
chickens gave persimmons two thumbs up. In fact, the persimmons
started a soccer match --- the most intense one I've seen among our
flock yet. Clearly, chickens think persimmons are delicious,
tannins or no tannins.
| This post is part of our Persimmons lunchtime series.
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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Here's the "no-fail" method. Get yourself a soup bowl and pour in a generous cup-full of -strong- alcohol (it must be more than 35% and preferably above 40%, but should not be a strongly flavoured liquor -- a strong vodka is a good choice). Dip the -stem- end of the persimmon into the alcohol (there's no need to fully immerse it) and place them onto a couple of sheets of clean newspaper in the bottom of a large plastic bag. Place the fruit in a single layer and seal the bag to make it airtight. Store it in a dark place (inside a cardboard box is fine) at room temperature for 8 to 10 days. Check the fruit daily after 8 days. You will end up with soft, juicy, sweet persimmons with no trace of astringency. Note for those not familiar with persimmons - if it's soft and mushy and comes apart in your hands, it's -ripe-, not bad: eat it, don't throw it away!