Glad someone else likes persimmons. I am the only one in my family who does. We have a 50 year old Hayashi Persimmon Tree that seldom fails. But due to our extreme drought it made only about 40 persimmons last year and this year looks worse. Normally it produces several bushel baskets full.
The Hayashi is a seedless Japanese Persimmon. It is an astringent variety, it can only be eaten when it softens, or is dried. 3 years ago I made a drying rack to go inside one of my sunroom windows. The first year I dried 250 persimmons, they were wonderful. Last year I only had a small number of persimmons so I did not dry that many.
If you have never dried a persimmon (requires seedless variety), the first step is to peal the persimmons while they are still firm, but just before they ripen. You cut the stem in a T shape and leave a small patch of the skin on the end of the persimmon opposite of the stem. An apple pealer works great for this project. If the persimmon is already ripe, you cannot dry it like this.
Here is a good example of how it is done:
http://www.rootsimple.com/2012/11/how-to-make-hoshigaki-dried-persimmons/
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My Jalero (yellow) Jalapeno peppers are going wonderful. One of the few things that worked this year. Will have seed to share if anyone is interested.
Also have some Tasti Gold watermelon seed to share. Last years crop, but germination should still be good for another season.
We had an extremely late hard freeze at the Beginning of May. Have never seen that happen before. We had NO fruit this year, except for my fig trees. And the berry crop was terrible, suspect the late freeze killed many of the early bees. The berries bloomed, but did not set the normal crop of berries.
I was very suprised to see our persimmon tree have so much fruit this year. I figured that it would be retarded due to last year’s drought.
Wish my freezer didn’t conk out. If it could be trusted, I would freeze the ripe persimmons to use as needed. I can not eat very many at once, they are just too rich.