Instructions: Persimmons are available October to January. Look for plump, smooth, highly colored fruit with the green cap intact. To fully enjoy persimmons, you will want to wait until they are fully ripe before eating them or adding them to recipes. Ripening persimmons at room temperature until they are very soft will bring this fruit to its sweet and delicious flavor. If not fully ripe, some persimmons can be astringent because of the presence of tannin, the same substance found in tea.

FROM THE MODESTO BEE:
Pucker up for a persimmon, says Daffy Duck. Most persimmons are grown in the San Joaquin Valley and the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. They retail for 39 to 49 cents each. Persimmons are usually best after the first frost. That is when they get really sweet. There are two main commercial types of persimmons. The fuyu is the flat, crunchy one, and can be eaten out of hand, like an apple. The hachiya, with a pointed end, is a soft type. It is best used in baking. Set hachiyas in your garage until they ripen fully; they are ripe when they feel like a water balloon. If you eat an unripe hachiya, you will definitely pucker up, because they are very astringent.

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