The Incredible (Inedibly Astringent) Persimmon: Know This First

Here are some facts to know about persimmons that will make you appreciate them even more. As it turns out, yes, you can die from the persimmon, one of the most lovely fruits on the planet. They're not poisonous though. Instead, it comes down to an oddity of the tannins in their skin.

I had to dive deep into the scientific literature on this one as very little had been written about this in popular online articles. If you're a doctor in a persimmon rich area, you probably know about this, but if you're not, it's all but unknown.



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[BeesBugsJapan]

You can ferment them and use it to protect wood from insects. It’s called kakishibu in Japanese.

[ATOES]

Mom had a persimmon tree, if you ate one before the first frost, it was bitter but became sweet after it frost hit the fruit, most would fall to the ground. They become very sweet. We would gather them up & remove the seed, bake cookies, pudding & also freeze them for Winter baking. I’ve never bought nor tasted the ones in the grocery store.

[Ucceah]

fun fact: a kind of boiled down juice/sirup (kaki-shibu), made from inedibly astringent persimmons, is used in japan as a wood finish and preservative, and to waterproof traditional paper umbrellas.

[EclipsaRosa]

Persimmons are an amazing fruit. It always baffled me that they aren't more popular.

[MrJohnmikesteve]

I often make a custard by blending some milk with persimmon. Sets very fast, and it tastes like a flan. Haven't died yet.

[aliciamarana]

Thank you for sharing this knowledge. We used to harvest small persimmons out in the woods when they would fall to the ground as a child in Arkansas. The first time I saw the other kind was when I was stationed in Korea. I love them all, they are delicious. I just started buying the hichiya kind from our local Asian market and the cashier was very kind to tell me to wait till they were totally mushy to eat.

[StefanBurns]

Dried persimmons are an excellent snack! I hope this video persuades people who normally don't harvest their persimmons to pick them and give them a try (and share them with the neighborhood)!

[ProducedByA]

Crazy! Im in new zealand and I ate an entire tree full of them in my backyard!!! Very sweet. Also sweet when they werent ripe yet too

[jeffdenison]

Love your video, My grandparents and great grand parents grew these astringent persimmons for many years and I grew up eating my grandmothers famous persimmon cookies made with cinnamon and allspice and a little ginger, but the main ingredient in the recipe is baking soda which is mixed with the persimmons after they have been pureed and the tannins are pretty much neutralized and forms this congealed mixture that when mixed with the rest of the ingredients gives a perfect consistency for cookies or bread very similar to the consistency of banana bread. The recipe also calls for baking powder as well to create a rise in the bake.

[pojampojam]

I could not look away from this video. Incredible information, storytelling, editing, everything!

[samhg]

Here in Brazil we have some of that too! Like, don't eat grapes and watermelons together, don't eat mango and drink milk, and don't eat grapes or watermelon and drink milk. I also never understood why.

[aleenaprasannan]

The congealing of the milk...that's actually how homemade yogurt is made. You can use any fruit grown in your garden, which will have the necessary bacteria in its surface and if you dip it in milk and keep it covered, the milk will ferment and give you yogurt with live active probiotic culture.
I would stay away from using fruits that you haven't grown yourself though, you never know what they have come in contact with and instead of lactobacteria you might end up culturing something harmful

[socaldeb]

Fascinating. For years, using a tree in a friend's California yard, I would use the very soft when ripe variety and make "Persimmon Pinapple Nut" bread (with a powdered sugar glaze.) I never knew anything about what they were like when not ripened to essentially "mush" in a skin because I never tried them. I'm glad I never did lol 😆 PS. If you want to make the bread, locate your favorite banana bread recipe, replace the bananna with 1 cup of very ripe (mushy juicy) persimmon and add 1 cup canned crushed pineapple (juice squeezed out). Otherwise, follow the bananna bread recipe. I typically use a spring form bundt pan as it makes a perfect circular bread (aka coffee cake), and it's easy to get out of the pan. Typically bake at 350 for 1 hour or until the butter knife comes out almost clean (clean may mean you've baked too long and bread may be dry). It should split on the top like bananna bread. Glaze with powdered sugar glaze (powdered sugar and milk). You can also make this with fresh pureed pumpkin (or Libby's). Just replace the persimmon with 1 cup pumpkin and viola perfect for Fall. Anyway, thanks for the great video!

[kittychan]

Wow, I had no idea that people didn’t know about persimmons! I grew up in California and we had a giant hachiya tree in our front yard. My mom made cookies and breads and cake and steamed pudding from them. Also, persimmons are common in the markets here. Mostly fuyus, but increasingly more hachiyas. Lately I’ve been getting really good ones at the farmers market. I’m planning on making persimmon pudding for Thanksgiving tomorrow.

[__-pljg]

Interesting. Thanks for the lesson.

I grew up in East Texas and at some point my dad planted several American Persimmon (diospyros virginiana) trees around our house and in a wooded area nearby. Of course I didnt realize the latin name or differences from other persimmons until now. As a kid wandering through the woods I would eat these all the time. The ripe ones of course 😀. You dont have to eat them off the ground, there were plenty of ripe ones still on the tree. They are sweet but have an odd flavor that to me wasnt very pleasant. I still ate them but always preferred other forest foods instead like cactus fruits, brazos berries, plumbs, ect. The flying insects (red wasps, honey bees, bumble bees, beetles) LOVED these fruits! I would sit and watch them for hours as they frantically ate as much as possible. That was the day I learned stinging insects dont care about stinging anyone when they are busy foraging for food. You can pick them up and hold them in your hands as long as they have food to occupy their attention.
Also the wild hogs. We would collect shovels full of rotting ones from the ground and store them in sealed 5gal buckets to use as hog bait when hunting.

[safiremorningstar]

First of all here in the middle-east
the persimmon must be treated in water before being sold( they soak them for a period of time in water) if they are not treated they are said to be poisonous, they are an acquired taste and a very sweet.
I learned about this from both my neighbor who has one growing and from the guy who farms them. Here they date back to biblical times and where called Afarsimon… and perfume dating to that time in which they didn’t just use the fruit to make the perfume but literally the whole tree ( it was very young under three years of age and is to long a story to say here) it was said the perfume made the women more beautiful (the word could also mean desirable) and men rich…(we know who sold it and became rich, don’t we lol)

[jeetray]

For the first time I bought some Fuyu Persimmons from Costco. One of my friends said persimmon's tastes awesome and likely the best fruit he ever tasted. To me however, the Indian subcontient mangoes such as Langra or Amropali (or a ton other varieties) are the best and I don't need to taste anything else to change my mind. It won't happen. I have been watching a few videos on Persimmons especially how to know when they are ready to eat. Then I saw this one. Wow!! It is like a Persimmon 534 graduate class. Now I will be worrying forever if some fruit is going to make lumps in my stomach and I need to drink sulfuric acid to melt it. Thank you very much!

By the way - it seems astringent simply means very caustic and sour that makes you feel like inside of your mouth is like a slug under salt. If that is the case - I need to share some knowledge to you guys. There is a fruit called Aamloki (from Bengal or Aamla in India) that are like small marble balls. Both in size and looks in fact. These has to be the most astringent fruit in the universe. So much so, that if you take a tiny bite in one of these - chew it for a few seconds - give it a minute - then drink regular water. You will taste you are drinking super sweet water.

Update:
I found Aamloki is called Gooseberry in English. Here is more about it with pictures.

Update 2:
The Western Gooseberry and Indian Gooseberry is very different even though they might look the same. Their species is different and properties too.

Here's the correct link.

[albusha]

Didn't know persimmons could be "deadly?" I've eaten persimmons all my life. Back in my home country Albania I've eaten tons. There are two main varieties there; white seed persimmons as we call them and blackseed ones. The white seed ones I have yet to see here in US. They are almost 3 times bigger in size than the ones here. You basically, must eat them when they are fully ripe and soft just like in the video with a spoon or slurp them with skin after washing them. The blackseed ones are sweet as soon as they get their full shape on the tree and you don't need to wait until they're ripe to eat them. But didn't know eating them you can get lumps in your stomach and drinking coca-cola dissolves it haha.

[lelleithmurray]

We have such a short persimmon season, and I LOVE Hachiyas! We get them in the stores when they're still very astringent. It takes a lot of willpower to let them soften but it's worth it. No puckering, and so sweet!

[FeralForaging]

This was super cool! I was particularly fascinated with the congealing of milk, I have never ever heard about that before. I’m going to test it out with some acorns that I foraged that are also high in tannins. I’ll let you know how that turns out! :D