The ‘Coffeecake’ persimmons are ripening:
At the right of that picture you can see a row of low-chill peaches and nectarines (the ones that need more winter chill are down the hill, as I’ll show and explain in later posts). At the end of the path between the persimmons and peaches you can see Fruits and Votes Central, which also doubles as my office for both fruit-growing and research/writing purposes.
The one fruit we had so far was a bit astringent because it had not ripened properly. When rodents take a bite out of fruit—a serious problem here at Ladera Frutal, despite the best efforts of our dedicated Department of Fruitland Defense—it hastens the ripening process, but also means the fruit will never properly ripen. (Very much like what happens when a fruit is picked before it is ripe, otherwise known as supermarket commercial fruit-growing.)
I eagerly anticipate the first truly ripe ‘Coffeecake’, assuming the rodents will be so kind as to respect that sheet metal and netting.
From the wholesale grower, Dave Wilson Nursery‘s description:
CoffeeCake persimmon [...] has a unique spicy-sweet flavor that instantly brings to mind images of cinnamon pastry, hot coffee and morning sunshine.
Now, does that sound intriguing or what? But, I wonder, can it really be better than ‘Nishimura Wase’, which was described this way in my 1997 catalogue from Bay Laurel Nursery (a mail-order source for Wilson varieties):
New variety from Japan. Earliest known variety to ripen in Calif., late Sept. Medium to large, round and slightly four-sided, non-astringent fruit. Each fruit has four or more seeds, developing a tasty, juicy, chocolate brown flesh.
That was the entire description. Nothing about cinnamon pastry, coffee, or even morning sunshine. ‘Coffeecake’ is just a new marketing name for ‘Nishimura Wase.’
Isn’t it amazing what a name change can do for a fruit!
Is that part of the house in the picture, or some other building.
Seed planted by sltaylor — 28 August 2005 @ 14:21
Ah, the mysterious layout of Ladera Frutal!
Nope, not the house. Just the office (built originally as a guest house, converted on behalf of the Chief Fruit-grower & Vote-counter).
The house is down the hill. Some days this is a pretty rough commute.
Seed planted by Matthew — 28 August 2005 @ 15:57
Spiffy.
I really will have to find a way down to see it all next time we are in SoCal.
Seed planted by sltaylor — 28 August 2005 @ 18:19
Well, its 2006… hopefully you’ve eaten those coffee cake persimmons by now.
How were they? Would you say they were appreciably different then Fuyu?
Did you find the flavor “spicy” or otherwise more complex than Fuyu? To me, Fuyu is nice and sweet, but has not so much character to the flavor.
Thanks for any comments.
Seed planted by Ron Salzman — 27 April 2006 @ 12:43
The ‘Coffeecake’ persimmon is certainly better than any of the Fuyu types I have had, most of which I find rather bland. The description, in the post above, is a bit over-wrought, but the flavor of ‘Coffeecake’ is more complex than most. I still like ‘Chocolate’ and ‘Suruga’ better, but ‘Coffeecake’ would make my top three or four, easily.
Among Fuyu types, I like ‘Matsumoto Wase’ better than the more common ‘Jiro’ and ‘Imoto.’ (If a tree or commercially sold fruit is labelled simply as ‘Fuyu’ it is almost certainly ‘Jiro.’)
And, yes, I had been meaning to post a follow-up to this, so thanks, Ron, for the prompt.
Seed planted by The Head Orchardist — 28 April 2006 @ 09:03
[...] Pictured just before sunset on a recent day, this is a row of five different Asian varieties, all with fruit. The one on the left is ‘Maru,’ then ‘Chocolate’ (only one fruit, not visible in the photo), ‘Tamopan,’ and then the two with really heavy crops this year (barely distinguishable in the most distant part of the photo: ‘Matsumoto Wase’ and ‘Coffecake’ (’Nishimura Wase’). The latter was previously pictured here just over a year ago–actually, in late August: Like almost all of our fruits, the ‘Coffeecake’ is much later this year than usual. [...]
Scion grafted by Fruits and Votes » Blog Archive » Fall color — 16 November 2006 @ 18:01