Rainy Weather

The recent rains are good for the orchard, but difficult for drying hoshigaki (Japanese hand-dried persimmons).  We've still been trying to dry as many persimmons as possible lately though, despite the rainy weather. The dampness has slowed the drying process and all the inside rooms are full of racks of peeled persimmons.  We hope to get more of the hoshigaki out in the sun during this week. 

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. 

Some of the first of this season's hoshigaki has finished so we have limited quantities for sale at our fruit stand. If you'd like to pick up more than a pound of hoshigaki at our fruit stand (when we have more available) 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.

There are lots of crisp fuyu persimmons at the fruit stand 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.

Also at the fruit stand we have Granny Smith, Fuji, Reinette Simerenko and Pippen apples, white and red varieties of pomegranate, Shinko and Olympic Asian pears, walnuts, eggs, Good Stuff Jam, and two different persimmon cookbooks for sale.