Thursday, December 4, 2008

Cold Weather Ripens Persimmons


This past week's colder weather and fog has brought an end to peeling fresh persimmons to dry for hoshigaki. The hachiya and gyombo persimmons on the trees have all started to get too ripe and soft to be suitable for peeling. Therefore, what we already have peeled and begun to dry is all the hoshigaki that will be able to be produced for this year's season. The persimmons we recently started drying will probably take longer to dry than those we started in the warmer weather in October (8 weeks in comparison to 4 weeks).

The ripening of the persimmons also means that we must stop mailing out orders of fresh persimmons. The fruit is now too soft to ship and have arrive in good condition. We are still selling fresh persimmons at the fruit stand, but we can't take any new mail orders for fresh persimmons. Our mail order items are now limited to hoshigaki (dried persimmons) and mandarins.

Since the airing of the PBS California Gold television program featuring the orchard we have been swamped with mail orders for hoshigaki. Although it was great as publicity for hoshigaki and the orchard, it's been hard to keep up with the increase in orders.

We are sorry to say that
if you order hoshigaki (dried persimmons) now, we can't guarantee that your order will be shipped out in time to arrive before Christmas.


We hope that customers who are able will come to the orchard and buy hoshigaki at the fruit stand. If you know you'll be coming to pick up hoshigaki, it's helpful if you call ahead and tell us. You can reach us at (916) 791-1656.

What's at the Fruit Stand:

  • Hoshigaki (dried persimmons)--various grades for sale at a range of prices per pound
  • Fresh Persimmons--Hachiya (soft and hard), Fuyu, Maru and vodka-treated Hyakume
  • Apples--Koyama's Granny Smith
  • Mandarins--Nodahara's satsuma
  • Quince
  • Pomegranate--Red
  • Pecans
  • Vegetables--Peppers (hot and sweet), Swiss chard, Jerusalem artichoke
  • Gourds--for decorations and crafting
Above is a photo of peeled persimmons hanging to dry for hoshigaki (massage-dried persimmons) at the orchard.



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