Hachiya Persimmons
I've been learning a lot about persimmons lately because Adelante got almost 80 boxes of persimmons from our friends at Food Forward!
I didn't grow up in a persimmon family but I know what one looks like, right? Well these persimmons were shaped like giant acorns, not like the persimmons I know about that are shaped like a tomato.
Turns out they are Hachiya persimmons and the tomato shaped ones are Fuyu. Did you know that?
When Food Forward sends a big volume of produce our way, we share it with other Conejo Valley food pantries. Every CV pantry got persimmons!
Ripe Hachiya Persimmon
Dorothy and I made persimmon cookies for our volunteers. They were good!
I’m making Hoshigaki, which are dried hachiya persimmons that I never heard of. I looked at a lot of online methods and ended up using this advice from Sunset Magazine
Hachiya persimmons are astringent, which means that they have a lot of tannins when they are not fully ripe. They have to be super soft, like pulp soft, before you eat them. But once they are ready, they are outstanding for baking or eating frozen like a sorbet. You can take a super-ripe Hachiya and throw it whole into the freezer. When it is totally frozen, run it under really hot water and the skin will just peel off. Let it thaw a bit and eat it like sorbet or throw it in the food processor to make puree for baking.
When we offer unfamiliar items at our distributions, or share them with other pantries, we try to provide information and recipes and we post the recipes on our website. The more I found out, the more I wanted to be sure that the nonprofits who we shared persimmons with, and the families we gave them to, didn’t get an unwelcome suprise.
The first “ripe” Hachiya I tried was soft like a ripe peach. I put a piece in my mouth and chewed it. It tasted like I imagine perfume would taste (not good). Then my mouth started feeling all tingly. A few hours later, the skin on the inside of my mouth started peeling off in thin sheets. It wasn’t painful but it was certainly peculiar.
As I shared my experience, I found that some folks knew all about Hachiya vs Fuyu persimmons and others, like me, were clueless.