Persimmons :-)

Short but sweet, the title of this post says it all. I just adore these delectable treats.

Thursday, when I spent the day home with my son, I stopped by the Becoming Raw Vegan blog to view her raw creations and read her thoughts for the day (I think it is important to check in with your raw peers on a regular basis). One line in her post got me salivating, even more than her food pics themselves; she said, "my dad just gave me a huge bag of persimmons from his tree."

Now, I'm not usually the type to get jealous, but I wish I had that kind of access to these fruits. I remember my grandmother giving me my first bite of one when I was a child. I didn't fully appreciate their flavor until I had matured a bit, which reminds me of the fruit itself.

You see, the flavor of the fruit is at its best when you allow it to totally ripen, so that they are soft and the juicy. I wonder if Raw Model has had an opportunity to enjoy his bounty, which had been set aside to ripen in one of his more recent posts.

Over at Banana Island, the inhabitants were too anxious to wait for theirs to mature. Just read this post about what a little impatience gets you.

Lucky me; the one lonely persimmon I had at home that day was ripe and ready, so I had it for a snack. I didn't make a fancy or even simple recipe with it. I just sliced it open and devoured every last bite. It was perfect as it was; I just wish I had more.

Now if I do get my hands on more of these luscious lovelies, maybe I would make one of my fellow raw food bloggers' creations. For instance, Becoming Raw Vegan had used hers to make this recipe from Sarah at Going Bananas!, and Phillip from Loving Raw used his to compose this persimmon banana pudding.

Gone Raw even has its share of raw persimmon recipes, like Young Coconut and Persimmon Smoothie, Persimmon Salad (way simpler than in sounds), Kaki Ice Cream and Persimmons with Stuffed Dates. There is also a discussion about persimmons on its forum.

But, I'll probably just enjoy the fruit in its natural state; it doesn't really need all those bells and whistles, although they are nice once and a while. I've just noticed that since becoming raw, flavors have become more vibrant, sugars in fruits provide just enough sweetness, and foods I never cared as much for in the past (I actually didn't like persimmons the first time I sampled one) are sometimes what I surprisingly crave now.

It's like in We Like It Raw's post, Green Vegetables: Creating Your Own Reality, where the act of just adding greens to someone's diet showed the ability to change eating habits and taste buds.

Neeta at Integral Dynamic Healing blogged, "A month ago, I started juicing and that changed everything for me.....after only ten days of drinking green juices in the morning, my body started craving greens, more and more greens. Nutrient dense, fresh, clean foods. In the beginning I used to dislike the green powders I added to my juices as well as to my water, then I began to love them.....I found myself one morning making a paste with two scoops of green powder and using my fingers to lick it all up......wierd or what!!!! My body started rejecting sweets, those yearnings began to fade away."

Yeah, I can relate, and so can Alissa at raw.ivorylodge.net, who was worried when she dumped too much spirulina into this concoction. To her astonishment, it turned out tasting okay.

Which reminds me; I haven't had my greens yet today. I must go now, for my smoothie awaits.