ottawa foodies

It's persimmon season, and I have vowed to try to get to know this strange fruit for the first time.

Any ideas for choosing, eating, cooking with persimmons?

The short squatty Fuyu persimmons can be peeled and eaten hard, but the pointed end Hachiya persimmons need to be very soft, sometimes almost black on the outside. I love to make cranberry sauce for the holidays with fresh cranberries, star anise and chunks of persimmon. Also there are a lot of recipes for persimmon pudding out there, which can be steamed like a plum pudding and is a nice variation.

I've never had one. But my mom says if you want them to soften and ripen, you put them in a bag of rice.

Unripe hachiya persimmons can also be softened by wrapping in foil and freezing. When they thaw they are softer but the flavor is not the same as letting them ripen naturally. the Fuyu variety are much less finicky. There were some nice looking fuyus at Costco last week.

tons of persimmons at T & T this week on sale by the case load.

Also on sale by the case at Sobey's--Just me and partner, we buy nothing by the case but I think it was 9.99/case.