I bought a persimmon tree years ago as an ornamental, (I'm in BC,
Canada, near the 49th parallel, so its fruit would not ripen here).

The tree produces a heavy crop each year, but my "persimmons" don't
look much like the ones I occasionally see in stores. Here is a link
to a high-res photo: http://www.oldstox.com/images/persimmons.jpg

The fruit are pear-shaped, heavy and firm, and have a downy fuzz over
a yellow skin. Are they indeed a variety of persimmon? Thanks for any
help.

On 2009-11-15 22:51:40 +0000, brafield said:

I bought a persimmon tree years ago as an ornamental, (I'm in BC,
Canada, near the 49th parallel, so its fruit would not ripen here).

The tree produces a heavy crop each year, but my "persimmons" don't
look much like the ones I occasionally see in stores. Here is a link
to a high-res photo: http://www.oldstox.com/images/persimmons.jpg

The fruit are pear-shaped, heavy and firm, and have a downy fuzz over
a yellow skin. Are they indeed a variety of persimmon? Thanks for any
help.

Do a Google image search on Cydonia oblonga or quince (NOT Chaenomeles
aka Japanese quince) I think your fruit might be those. They're best
when cooked. What do the flowers look like? And is the fruit
perfumed? It might not be if it doesn't fully ripen with you. I'm not
sure about this but they do look and sound very like Cydonia.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
Shrubs & perennials. Tender & exotics.
South Devon

In article ,
Sacha wrote:
On 2009-11-15 22:51:40 +0000, brafield said:

I bought a persimmon tree years ago as an ornamental, (I'm in BC,
Canada, near the 49th parallel, so its fruit would not ripen here).

The tree produces a heavy crop each year, but my "persimmons" don't
look much like the ones I occasionally see in stores. Here is a link
to a high-res photo: http://www.oldstox.com/images/persimmons.jpg

The fruit are pear-shaped, heavy and firm, and have a downy fuzz over
a yellow skin. Are they indeed a variety of persimmon? Thanks for any
help.

Do a Google image search on Cydonia oblonga or quince (NOT Chaenomeles
aka Japanese quince) I think your fruit might be those. They're best
when cooked. What do the flowers look like? And is the fruit
perfumed? It might not be if it doesn't fully ripen with you. I'm not
sure about this but they do look and sound very like Cydonia.

Absolutely. If so, they are quite wtrongly scented, with a very
tangy flavour, and the leaves are furry and silverish underneath.
A much superior fruit to a persimmon!

I should be flabberghasted if they aren't.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Those are certainly (true) quinces. When the other posters say "best cooked" the reality is "inedible if not cooked". Peel and core them before cooking. You'll find various ideas for recipes for using them on the web. Usually keep for a few weeks if unblemished.

I disagree with Nick, a ripe persimmon (ie D. kaki, Japanese persimmon) is one of the most delicious fruit experiences on the planet. If you were in one of those bits of BC where they grow grapes and make wine, I would have thought you could grow them, though you'd be a bit on the edge. The American Persimmon D. virginiana grows as far north as New York, so maybe that would be easier to grow for you. There is also D. lotus which I think is easier to ripen than D. kaki, though it is rather different.

In article ,
echinosum wrote:

Those are certainly (true) quinces. When the other posters say "best
cooked" the reality is "inedible if not cooked". Peel and core them
before cooking. You'll find various ideas for recipes for using them
on the web. Usually keep for a few weeks if unblemished.

Well, I eat them with pleasure, uncooked.

I disagree with Nick, a ripe persimmon (ie D. kaki, Japanese persimmon)
is one of the most delicious fruit experiences on the planet.

There's no accounting for taste. I find them sickly. Give me a
sun-ripened mango any day.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

THANKS TO EVERYONE for such prompt polite answers. Yes, they must be
quince --- how I bought the tree as "persimmon" I'll never know.
The flowers' fragrance is not my favourite, and likewise, the only
time I tried to eat one of the fruit I didn't suit my taste buds
either.

I checked the leaves and flowers as well, on Google, as suggested, and
they match exactly.

Yesterday I had to bring down and throw away the remaining fruit, as
my annual visitor, a very fat black bear, had spent the night in my
garden creating havoc and pooping prolifically --- and householders
here can get a fine for leaving out bear attractants. Last year he
wrenched off a major branch, something the "darling little deer" did
to my apple tree too. The quince tree is not very big, perhaps
fifteen feet high, but produces about 130 fruit, which seems very
prolific.

Again, thanks for your help and pointers; now I shall ask some local
experts about quince --- perhaps it HAS been ripe and I didn't
recognize the fact ---.

On 2009-11-16 17:46:16 +0000, brafield said:

THANKS TO EVERYONE for such prompt polite answers. Yes, they must be
quince --- how I bought the tree as "persimmon" I'll never know.

I wouldn't blame myself in your shoes. If people are unfamiliar with a
tree or its fruit, mistakes can be made. The sellers may well have
thought they had hold of a Persmimmon. Maybe you should go back and
ask them for a Medlar. ;-)

The flowers' fragrance is not my favourite, and likewise, the only
time I tried to eat one of the fruit I didn't suit my taste buds
either.

Nick is one of our hardier species of urg plantlets. (D&R) ;-))

I checked the leaves and flowers as well, on Google, as suggested, and
they match exactly.

Yesterday I had to bring down and throw away the remaining fruit, as
my annual visitor, a very fat black bear, had spent the night in my
garden creating havoc and pooping prolifically --- and householders
here can get a fine for leaving out bear attractants. Last year he
wrenched off a major branch, something the "darling little deer" did
to my apple tree too. The quince tree is not very big, perhaps
fifteen feet high, but produces about 130 fruit, which seems very
prolific.

Yesssss - backing away slowly. We don't get a lot of that bear thing
in England. The ones we have in our garden came from the chainsaw
sculptors and are static!

Again, thanks for your help and pointers; now I shall ask some local
experts about quince --- perhaps it HAS been ripe and I didn't
recognize the fact ---.

But cook it or make jam from it. The original marmalade was made with
quince - Cydonia NOT Chaenomeles. You do need to watch out for any
muddle between those two, btw.

--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
Shrubs & perennials. Tender & exotics.
South Devon

In article ,
Sacha wrote:
On 2009-11-16 17:46:16 +0000, brafield said:

Again, thanks for your help and pointers; now I shall ask some local
experts about quince --- perhaps it HAS been ripe and I didn't
recognize the fact ---.

But cook it or make jam from it. The original marmalade was made with
quince - Cydonia NOT Chaenomeles. You do need to watch out for any
muddle between those two, btw.

If you think that true quince is inedible raw, try Chaenomeles :-)


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On 2009-11-16 18:36:22 +0000, said:

In article ,
Sacha wrote:
On 2009-11-16 17:46:16 +0000, brafield said:

Again, thanks for your help and pointers; now I shall ask some local
experts about quince --- perhaps it HAS been ripe and I didn't
recognize the fact ---.

But cook it or make jam from it. The original marmalade was made with
quince - Cydonia NOT Chaenomeles. You do need to watch out for any
muddle between those two, btw.

If you think that true quince is inedible raw, try Chaenomeles :-)


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

I did. Once. Never, ever, ever again. It's a wonder I had children
after that. ;-)
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
Shrubs & perennials. Tender & exotics.
South Devon

"Sacha" wrote in message
...
On 2009-11-16 18:36:22 +0000, said:

In article ,
Sacha wrote:
On 2009-11-16 17:46:16 +0000, brafield said:

Again, thanks for your help and pointers; now I shall ask some local
experts about quince --- perhaps it HAS been ripe and I didn't
recognize the fact ---.

But cook it or make jam from it. The original marmalade was made with
quince - Cydonia NOT Chaenomeles. You do need to watch out for any
muddle between those two, btw.

If you think that true quince is inedible raw, try Chaenomeles :-)


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

I did. Once. Never, ever, ever again. It's a wonder I had children after
that. ;-)
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
Shrubs & perennials. Tender & exotics.
South Devon


I think you're meant to put them in your mouth.

Spider

Sacha writes
But cook it or make jam from it. The original marmalade was made with
quince

hence the name - marmelo is Portuguese for quince.

The Portuguese still serve quince paste with cheese. It's intensely rich
and sweet - impossible to eat more than a small square

--
Kay

On 2009-11-16 19:36:26 +0000, "Spider" said:


"Sacha" wrote in message
...
On 2009-11-16 18:36:22 +0000, said:

In article ,
Sacha wrote:
On 2009-11-16 17:46:16 +0000, brafield said:

Again, thanks for your help and pointers; now I shall ask some local
experts about quince --- perhaps it HAS been ripe and I didn't
recognize the fact ---.

But cook it or make jam from it. The original marmalade was made with
quince - Cydonia NOT Chaenomeles. You do need to watch out for any
muddle between those two, btw.

If you think that true quince is inedible raw, try Chaenomeles :-)


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

I did. Once. Never, ever, ever again. It's a wonder I had children after
that. ;-)
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
Shrubs & perennials. Tender & exotics.
South Devon


I think you're meant to put them in your mouth.

Spider

Zut alors.......there's always a catch..... ;-)
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
Shrubs & perennials. Tender & exotics.
South Devon

On 2009-11-16 20:32:35 +0000, K said:

Sacha writes
But cook it or make jam from it. The original marmalade was made with quince

hence the name - marmelo is Portuguese for quince.

The Portuguese still serve quince paste with cheese. It's intensely
rich and sweet - impossible to eat more than a small square

We were given some a few years ago and I'm a little ashamed to say we
didn't like it much. I think that's probably something to do with
getting used to it. I absolutely love the Quince jam one sees in Med
hotels, even while I'm sure it's a pale imitation of a home made
version. It's just delicious.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
Shrubs & perennials. Tender & exotics.
South Devon

In article ,
K wrote:
Sacha writes
But cook it or make jam from it. The original marmalade was made with
quince

hence the name - marmelo is Portuguese for quince.

The Portuguese still serve quince paste with cheese. It's intensely rich
and sweet - impossible to eat more than a small square

Well, some people can :-) Admittedly, even I can't eat many.

If you make it at home, you don't have to make it AS sweet, though
true quince paste might not keep made that way. Chaenomeles and
damson cheese do, however, and the former has enough acid to taste
sharp even when made with plenty of sugar to keep. It's fine even
several years later.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Your photograph shows ripe quinces. They don't soften. I have tried eating a raw piece, and whilst you wouldn't immediately spit it out like you might with some must-cook fruit, the great majority of people would say it isn't very nice.

Though I have heard that the Chinese quince or false quince, Pseudocydonia sinensis, is edible raw if frosted.