I know this is an old rant, but I find that random searches on your site produce the best reading material. And I always learn something!

About those persimmons: if you haven’t discovered yet, the ones you usually find in the store are really underripe. They’re really ripe when they’re squishy, a deep orange and you’re sure they’ve gone bad. Don’t worry, they haven’t. Slice one and eat with a spoon. They’re lovely and sweet and taste a bit like a Hawaiian papaya.

In fact, I’ve just had a chat with one of my colleagues about persimmons. He’s from Madagascar and apparently there are several species of persimmon trees in his yard back home. He tells me that the fruit is picked before it is completely ripe, like bananas, and left out on the counter to ripen. He likes to eat his before they get *really* squishy, but says that most people would say that they’re still underripe that way.

Hope this comment helped! (I’m going to stock up next time I go to the grocery store.)