Tonytran, yes, picking early and drying is another way to defeat the squirrels; I can't dry them in the sun like that in my climate at harvest time, but the dehydrator does a good job of it. I'm still nibbling from my secret stash of dried Great Wall persimmons 8 months after last year's harvest. They would have been gone long ago in this household had their whereabouts been generally known. :) I'm amazed that the quality has remained the same after all that time. The trick I think is to really dry the hell out of them. I've tried drying American persimmons but haven't figured it out yet - the seeds make it tough.

Creekweb
I've dried NC-10(D.virginiana) - either by cutting them in halves/quarters, or just sort of 'squashing' them into a 'patty'. Yes, the seeds are there, but they're fairly easy to just pop out when you're eating them. Worth the effort.

Have also made persimmon 'leather' by pulping out American persimmons, and spreading a layer on a sheet of plastic wrap pulled over a cookie sheet, then cooked overnight in the oven at its lowest setting (~170F). Might be better if done on the fruit leather tray in the dehydrator, but I've not tried it that way.

tony - that was very interesting - but traditional? Looked pretty well mechanized - at least so far as the peeling was concerned. 'twas very interesting to me, to see the harvesters cutting/breaking fruiting twigs out of the tree when removing the fruits.

Creek, you are right about drying the heck out of them, I dried a batch of Hachiyas for double the recommended time and they still rotted in a month. It was sad throwing them out after all that work. My trees are loaded this year so I'll give the dryer another go.

Scott

Lucky, at what degree of ripeness are you drying your persimmons? I've had trouble cutting the very ripe ones and am looking to dry fruit when it's colored up but still somewhat firm and astringent - at a stage when I can still rescue them from the varmints.
My guess is that the cutting of the persimmons out of the tree in the video is the only pruning those trees get. I use a ladder to hand pick what I can, but on my taller trees where I can't reach the fruit, I too have to rely on a pole pruner to cut the fruit out of the tree. The pole picker, which does a good job helping me harvest my tall pome fruit trees, doesn't work on the persimmons.

Scott, My method is to slice well-colored up but firm fruit into half inch thick pieces and then to dry until the entire slice becomes candied and absolutely no astringency remains. I then store in a ziplock bag in a dark spot at room temperature.

Creek,

This guy was able to dry his persimmons the traditional way in his back porch. I think you can do it too. If it is not completely dry by late November than bring it down the basement and hang it for another 2-3 weeks. I am going to dry some this late fall to see if it works. Will post follow up in January.

Tony

Here is a link that might be useful: Drying persimmon

creekweb,
I'm drying fully-ripe - soft, but not at the point of going 'splat' when they fall. Also some that drop or are knocked off when fairly well colored, but still firm and somewhat astringent.
Yes, if soft, they're a bit difficult to cut - but I've dried some that were too soft to cut, just 'squashing' them a bit.

My friend Lee has dried Rosseyanka fruits in his dehydrator, picked while firm, but well colored (and still astringent), peeled and sliced - and they lose astringency in the process. A delight to eat those tasty slivers.

Another way to preserve persimmon is to freez the whole fruit, if you like the fully ripe/running texture. Let the frozen fruit thaw at room temperature and it tastes just like a fully ripe fresh persimmon.

For dried persimmon leather (made from native persimmon pulp) I've found that adding just a little bit of honey improves the texture a lot.

I prepared my first hoshigaki - dried persimmons. They dehydrated too much and are very hard, like stone :D Taste good, but first I have to soak them in water for several hours. Next time I will try to make them more gelatinous. White spots is crystallized sugar.

Those snacks look very nice and are definitely healthy. It s better to dry persimmons in dehydrator, but it is more expensive compared to traditional way. California Fuyu were bought from store or your own production? How long did take to dry persimmons in dehydrator?

I think you supposed to massage the persimmons every few days in order to get them soft while air drying.

I bought three 40lbs boxes at the Asian market for $1.20 per lb. Each tray contained 5 sliced persimmons and a total of 5 trays per a dehydrator. I set the fruits mode function and it took 24 hrs to dry.

BTW, I just use the snow to water 20 of my potted Asian persimmons.

Tony

Yes, I left my persimmons to soft and dry naturally by air and bigger fruits on heater (radiator) to avoid rots (fungi). My persimmons were full of seeds, because I have pollinator in the garden and now I have extrawork before eating . What varieties of persimmon do you have in pots? Do you also cold stratify persimmon seeds? Because I see some pots with no plants on photo :-)

They are all pretty much non-astringent Tam Kam. Hopefully in a few years that I don't have to buy the California Fuyu anymore and have my own Tam Kam for drying. I have some American persimmon and pawpaw seeds being stratify for future rootstocks.

Tony

I am looking for Tam Kam persimmon variety, but it is difficult to find source of scionwood here in Europe. It seems to be korean variety with good taste, non astringent. Did you taste the fruits? And what about hardiness in your conditions?

another pile of dried persimmons...