Persimmon – Fruit of the Gods – A Common Yet Often Neglected Fruit – Guest Appearance From @papa-pepper

[](https://media.giphy.com/media/cKTepBo6Kc5ry/giphy.gif)https://pixabay.com/static/uploads/photo/2013/09/28/15/24/persimmon-fruit-187783_960_720.jpgPixabay*Diospyros kaki/texana/virginiana – (sp Ebenaceae)* is the persimmon tree, native to both Asia and North America. Persimmons are a wonderful fruits that don’t seem to get the attention they deserve. It’s not really rare so much as that it’s not commonly found in our grocery stores.

There are many types of persimmons, but we’ll focus mainly on the edible groups. Different varieties are native to the Americas, Europe, Asia and various islands, but not Australia (perhaps, but I found none). Because of the name “*diospyros*”, many confuse this to referring to the food of the gods (*dios* = god). This is inaccurate though. The “dio-” is simply a prefix for plant names.

# Astringent vs. Non-Astringent
There’s a lot of confusion over what this means. Simply put, it means you can’t eat unripened fruit if it’s astringent. It’ll be bitter and/or sour tasting. Eating too many before they are ripe can