One of my favorite things about the month of November is visiting local farmers markets to find a beautiful, sweet, orange-colored fruit called the persimmon. Truth be told, I was not aware of the existence of the persimmon until I moved to the left coast in the late 90s. I quickly learned that there are several different types of persimmons, one of which needs to be soft and almost to the point of liquefying to be consumed without having a mouth-puckering astringent taste (I learned this the hard way), namely the Hachiya persimmon. For me, patience is definitely key to the successful consumption of this type of persimmon, which involves patiently waiting for full ripeness.
Two other types of persimmons that I have enjoyed are Fuyu and Amagaki, both of which I eat while they are still hard, with very little to no astringency, depending on the degree of ripeness. These three types of persimmons grow here in northern California and are relatively easy to find in local stores and farmers markets during the months of November and December.
Of course, since I love to know the nutrient content of foods, I did a nutrient analysis of persimmons. The type of persimmon used to determine this information was not specified:
| Persimmon, 3 fruits (75 g) | Adult Daily Values | |
| Calories | 95 | |
| Calcium | 20.3 | 1000 – 1200 mg |
| Iron | 1.87 | 8 – 18 mg |
| Potassium | 232.5 | 4700 mg |
| Vitamin C | 49.5 | 70 – 90 mg |
| Protein | 0.6 g |
I was a little disappointed to find that many of the nutrients of interest to me were not reported, such as the B vitamins, zinc, and magnesium. However, I was surprised to see the notable iron, vitamin C, and potassium content of persimmons. For a fruit, I find this to be worthy of consideration.
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