{"id":5103,"date":"2015-10-25T13:13:09","date_gmt":"2015-10-25T13:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/happychildcsa.com\/froghollowCSA\/?p=5103"},"modified":"2016-04-07T13:14:45","modified_gmt":"2016-04-07T13:14:45","slug":"a-note-from-chef-becky-october-25th","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/happychildcsa.com\/froghollowCSA\/a-note-from-chef-becky-october-25th\/","title":{"rendered":"A note from chef Becky: October 25th"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>A NOTE FROM CHEF BECKY<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nThis week we\u2019ve been picking persimmons and they are looking abundant and\u00a0tasting delicious. The trees are loaded! The branches are bowed, laden with the\u00a0big, bright orange fruits. We have three varieties, Hachiya, chocolate Hachiyas\u00a0and Fuyu. The Fuyus are thick skinned bright orange and almost look like little\u00a0pumpkins. They are firm and sweet and can be eaten without being fully ripe.\r\n\r\nThey are best and come to their peak of sweetness when they are fully ripe and\u00a0slightly speckled with tiny little brown spots. The sweetness of the persimmon\u00a0is hard to describe, it is intensely sweet without any competing acid, but it is\u00a0not sickly sweet; it has a deep, rich honey sweetness. It is loaded with nutrients; it is high in poly-phenol antioxidants as well as b-complex vitamins and\u00a0it is high in fiber. While being very high in sugar, it is actually very low in fat.\r\n\r\nThey are best eaten raw, out of hand but they are wonderful in salads, a nice\u00a0foil to a champagne vinaigrette. They can be dried, if you have too many, in an\u00a0oven and eaten as a snack, or rehydrated to be used in savory dishes.\r\n\r\nThe Fuyu\u2019s cousin, the Hachiya is a different story. It ripens in early November\u00a0and it hangs on the tree long after the leaves have shed, looking like bright\u00a0orange ornaments on the bare trees. It cannot be eaten until fully, squishily\u00a0ripe, otherwise its astringency will pucker your cheeks and send you running\u00a0for a piece of cheese. They are longer, more egg shaped than the Fuyu, but\u00a0crowned with the same lotus blossom looking sephal. The skin of the Hachiya\u00a0thins as it ripens; by the time they are fully ripe, they look almost transparent\u00a0and resemble dark orange, almost reddish, water balloons. The Hachiya is used\u00a0primarily as a puree, not sliced and eaten as the fuyu. It is best for persimmon\u00a0pudding, a rich, pudding\/cake or persimmon cookies. They can also be made\u00a0into a delicious ice cream. You can hasten ripening by sticking them in the\u00a0freezer and after a day they will be soft enough to puree. But, be careful; freezing is no substitute for proper ripening; they may soften in the freezer but if\u00a0under ripe the astringency will still come through making it inedible. When\u00a0perfectly ripe, they are amazingly sweet and delicious.\r\n\r\nThe chocolate persimmon or Maru, is like the Hachiya but even sweeter with\u00a0hints of nutmeg. They are prized because very few people grow them. They\u00a0have a dark orange hue, like the Hachiya at first, but as they ripen, the flesh\u00a0turns brown and shows through the translucent skin, giving it a chocolate appearance. Eat only when the flesh is brown. Yes, it will look rotten, but other-\r\nwise it will be astringent, like the Hachiya. The flavor is pure sweetness with\u00a0overtones of fall spice.\r\n\r\nLook for these beauties in your box in November. We\u2019ll send along some recipes for persimmon pudding and cookies. For now, enjoy your Fuyus!","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A NOTE FROM CHEF BECKY This week we\u2019ve been picking persimmons and they are looking abundant and\u00a0tasting delicious. The trees are loaded! The branches are bowed, laden with the\u00a0big, bright orange fruits. We have three varieties, Hachiya, chocolate Hachiyas\u00a0and Fuyu. The Fuyus are thick skinned bright orange and almost look like little\u00a0pumpkins. They are firm [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-note-from-farmer-al"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5HwAU-1kj","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/happychildcsa.com\/froghollowCSA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/happychildcsa.com\/froghollowCSA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/happychildcsa.com\/froghollowCSA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/happychildcsa.com\/froghollowCSA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/happychildcsa.com\/froghollowCSA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5103"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/happychildcsa.com\/froghollowCSA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5105,"href":"https:\/\/happychildcsa.com\/froghollowCSA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5103\/revisions\/5105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/happychildcsa.com\/froghollowCSA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/happychildcsa.com\/froghollowCSA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/happychildcsa.com\/froghollowCSA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}