Hoshigaki, Fuyu and Mandarin

Persimmon season is in full swing right now.  The fruit stand is full of fresh persimmons and all the drying racks are filled with sticks of persimmons in the process of drying.  We've been spending lots of time massaging the drying persimmons and deciding which ones are dry enough and ready to take off the racks.  In the packing room we have been packaging finished hoshigaki (Japanese hand-dried persimmons) to sell at the fruit stand and for mail orders.

We're still peeling persimmons to start new hoshigaki because the persimmons are still hard enough to peel.  Sometime in the next few weeks  we'll need to stop peeling because the persimmons will either be mostly too ripe to dry well or the weather will be too cool or damp for them to dry well. Right now we're still taking orders for pick up at the fruit stand or mail order. If you'd like to pick up more than a pound of hoshigaki at out fruit stand, it's a good idea to call ahead.  If you live within driving distance picking up an order at the fruit stand may be worthwhile economically.

At the fruit stand we have lots of hard fuyu persimmons still.  We have fuyus for sale by the pound or by the bag.  Fuyus are sweet and ready to eat when they're hard.  We also have hachiya and gyombo persimmons,  which must be very soft to be sweet.  Other persimmons we have are maru (or chocolate persimmon) and hyakume (or cinnamon persimmon).  Maru and hyakume are pollination variant type persimmons, which means they're sweet and ready to eat hard if they're pollinated.  We also have vodka-treated hyakume, which is always sweet and ready to eat when hard, because of the vodka treatment.  We also have owari satsuma mandarins, Granny Smith apples, red pomegranate, kabocha winter squash, honey from bees at the orchard, and two different persimmon cookbooks for sale at the fruit stand.