Persimmons are ripe NOW!

FWIW...If anyone has access to a persimmon tree, they are ripe NOW!

I'm in northern Alabama, ROLL TIDE!!!, and I imagine the more northern latitudes will be following along day-by-day.

I know that grapes, apples, pears, muscadines, scuppernongs, etc., are all comming in, too!

But, if you have an empty primary right now, you might want to consider persimmons.

For those who have yet to try a fully ripe one, they are very sweet, and have kind of a butterscotch flavor to them.

Tradition says to wait until after the first frost to harvest them. But, in my neck of the woods, they will be gone by then!

Pogo

I picked some out at my farm about 3 weeks ago and they were almost ripe then. Went out there to mess around for a while this morning and they were all gone. Yeah, you can't wait around till the first frost because the deer will devour them as soon as they get ripe.

I imagine some yankees don't know what a persimmon is, for those of you who don't know - its a little piece of wild fruit thats juicy and sweet when its ripe, but before its ripe its the most tart thing you can imagine - if you take a bit your mouth will pucker up like crazy.

Can you recommend a recipe? I'm sure they'll be at the farmers market soon.

This is the one I'm planning to use.

I can't vouch for it though, as it will be a first time for me, too.

Scale the ingredient quanities up to accomodate the size of your fermentor.


PERSIMMON WINE

Makes one gallon.

Ingredients:

3 lbs. Persimmons 7 Pints Water
2-1/4 lbs. Sugar 2-1/2 tsp Acid Blend
1/2 tsp Pectic Enzyme 1 Campden, crush
1 Pkg Wine Yeast 1 tsp Yeast Nutrient

Keep your acid tester and hydrometer handy. As with all wild fruit the sugar and acid content varies greatly from year to year and even from one location to another. The recipe above is a general recipe to use which you may have to adjust.

Directions:

1. Pick fully ripe persimmons, preferrably after first frost.

2. Wash and drain the persimmons. Cut in half and remove seeds. Cut into chucks and using nylon straining bag crush, mash and strain juice into primary fermenter. Keeping all pulp in straining bag, tie top and place in primary.

3. Stir in all other ingredients EXCEPT yeast. Cover primary.

4. After 24 hrs., add yeast . Cover primary.

5. Stir daily, check hydrometer reading (S.G.) and press pulp lightly to aid extraction.

6. When ferment reaches S.G. 1.040 (about 5 days) strain juice from bag. Syphon off sediment into clean secondary. Attach lock.

7. When S.G. reaches 1.000 (usually about 3 weeks), fermentation is complete. Syphon juice off sediment into clean glass container. Re-attach airlock.

8. To aid in clearing, syphon again in 2 months and again, if necessary, before bottling.

9. Allow the wine to age.
If a slightly sweetened wine is more to your taste, add 1/2 tsp. of stabilizer and 1/4 to 1/2 cups of dissolved sugar at bottling.

Good luck!

Pogo

How did it turn out ?
please and thank you

found 2 tree's