Persimmon

HAPPY NEW YEAR wishes to all “Senthil’s Kitchen” fans out there!

I am very sorry for the long break with my blogging.  Here is my New Year’s resolution – a blog a day, and if I miss out on any day, I will catch up within that week (latest by that Sunday).  Hey!!!  I am very excited, are you as well?

By the way, I requested my dear son Sanjay who is an 8^th grader to edit today’s blog and special thanks to him for doing a great job with that (but sorry Sanjay I couldn’t accept to your demand of 5 cents charge for each correction in my blog even though I agreed to it initially, how about we fix a flat rate of 50 cents per blog?).  Hey, who is calling me cheapo?

How was 2018 to you?  For me, 2018 was a good year as I (finally) started on my food blog.  2019 is only going to be more exciting as I will be more actively blogging/ vlogging.  I also have some responsibility to fix few things with my health – I promise I will fix that with more healthier food from Senthil’s Kitchen, yoga/ exercise, and good relaxed family time (family includes my two naughty puppies, sorry dog “teenagers” Princeton and Newton who turned two last month!).

Now let us come to the topic of the day. Have you ever heard of the fruit, Persimmon? In today’s blog I will be talking about how I came to liking persimmons, some interesting facts and my experience (!!!) growing them.

First and foremost, I am so thankful to my dear friend Krishna, also known as Kichan who sent me loads of yummy homegrown organic persimmons from California!!! I have never seen anyone who is so passionate about persimmons as my old friend, Kichan.  He is also very passionate about growing other fruit trees along with persimmon, and I can call him the fruit tree expert.

Our dear friend Prasad from the neighborhood also kindly shared his homegrown persimmons with me.  They were so delicious, thanks Prasad!  Prasad is a master gardener – I was so impressed when he gave me a tour of his garden, I saw so many varieties of plants and trees, and scientific experiments happening in his garden!

As with all fruits the persimmon has many interesting fun facts and here are a few:

• The scientific name for persimmon is “Diospyros”.  It comes from the ancient Greek words “dios” and “pyron” which can be construed as “divine fruit”.  I bet if you taste one, you will certainly agree!
• Persimmon is the national fruit of Japan!
• Close to 50% of the persimmons in the world are grown in China.
• Persimmons are eaten fresh, dried, raw (skin can be eaten too), and cooked.
• Persimmons are rich in dietary fiber and nutrients especially vitamin A & C.
• Persimmon trees flower during spring and the fruits are ripe and ready to eat in fall/ winter.
• Persimmons belong to the berry family.
• There are two different types of persimmons – astringent and non-astringent.  The astringent type are heart shaped (called Hachiya persimmons) and are generally used for cooking, and the non-astringent type are tomato shaped (called Fuyu persimmons) and are eaten fresh.  The astringent variety hachiya persimmons only stay fresh for a few days, but the non-astringent fuyu ones can stay fresh for much longer.
• Fresh and dried persimmon leaves are used to make tea.
• It may take up to 7 years if you try to grow persimmon from a seed.  Best option is to buy a grafted tree from your local nursery – it will start to give fruits the same or the next year.  Check with your local nursery if this exotic fruit tree is available to grow and will survive in your local weather conditions.

Now I want to share my experience growing persimmons in my backyard.  Last year I tried to grow a persimmon tree in my backyard (due to persistent encouragement from Kichan), but sadly the tree died due to drainage issues in my yard.  I have fixed the drainage issue now, I hope I will be lucky with growing this tree this year.

I hoped you enjoyed reading this blog.  I will follow up with some persimmon recipes in future blogs.  Now if you have never tasted persimmons before, head out to the nearest (preferably Asian) grocery store as they are still in season, buy and enjoy them!