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NEWS |
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Chocolate Persimmon Excerpt from December 2002 newsletter Patsy Flanigan
Twenty-two diversified food lovers gathered outside a Santa Monica parking garage at 7:45 a.m. on a recent Saturday morning to board a bus for a tour of groves in Placer County, California. (Northeast of Sacramento) The group was a part of "Slow Food, USA", the domestic arm of an international educational organization dedicated to stewardship of the land. These folks share a love of good food and want to know where it comes from and how it is prepared. Most are professional and amateur chefs, teachers in food preparation and others interested in good health.
Persimmon lover and food writer, David Karp was organizer and guide. He has written extensively both for the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times regarding his quest for unusual persimmon varieties and especially the Maru or "Chocolate Persimmon".
First stop for lunch was at the ECHO Restaurant in Fresno. The colorful avante guard décor was a delight to see, as we enjoyed a special menu choice of duck, swordfish, or pork beautifully presented. Salad included mixed greens with nuts, homegrown beets, fingerling avocados with thin slices of Parmesan cheese. Dessert was a distinctive bitter almond bread pudding with carmel..
Dinner on Saturday evening was at the Community Center in Loomis, where about 100 local farmers and agriculture officials had gathered to celebrate the harvest and present "Placer Grown" produce. Enthusiasm ran high as the local folks mingled with the out-of-towners and were proud to show off their persimmons, mandarin oranges, broccoli, wines, pies, persimmon bread and other specialties.
Highlight of the trip was the visit to the 100 year-old Otow Persimmon orchard. Grandson of the original owner, Tosh Kuratomi, showed us around and explained the processes used to remove the astringency and dry the persimmons in the ancient Japanese way. In the Japanese method, Hachiya persimmons are peeled with the tops left on, then dried whole, hanging from a little string. The process takes several days, partly in the sun and then later indoors for the final stage. The final product is a dark brown color with the white sugar on the outside that comes out naturally as the fruit dries.
It was on this orchard that we saw a 100 year-old persimmon tree. Also we found the Maru persimmon trees and sampled the sweet dark flesh that must be soft ripe to be edible. A fleet of geese patrolled the orchard and took care of fallen fruit. Family members worked in drying and packing operations. Tosh also handed out samples of their own olives processed with lye.
Participants next visited a mandarin orange grove, and enjoyed samples of dried quince, mandarin pies, Japanese dried persimmons, and of course the delicious fresh mandarin oranges that are sometimes mistaken for tangerines. Mandarins have no seeds and are very easy to peel. Tangerines do have seeds and the peels are usually tighter.
We learned much. Perhaps most important was the friendliness of the farmers and their willingness to share their fruit and the pride that they have in what they do. |
