Persimmons & "New Year" ???????

The persimmon, native to China, is one of the oldest cultivated plants. It was cultivated over 2000 years in China. The Japanese Persimmon or kaki (?) or shiz (??) in Chinese is the most widely cultivated species. The persimmon is more well-known in the West as Sharon fruits named after the Sharon Plain in Israel. It was introduced to California and southern Europe in the 1800s and to Brazil in the 1890s. There are about 1000 spices of persimmons and it can be grouped into two with astringent and non-astringent taste. Soluble tannin in the fruit causes the astringent taste and it can be turned into insoluble one by storing it the carbon dioxide atmosphere or by spraying alcohol and keeping them in a closed bag for a week or so. You can keep it together with apples in a closed bag for weeks to make it sweet. The species called Hachiya, one of astringent types, is commonly cultivated earlier, however, sweet species like Fuyu (rich) is more common to cultivate these days. The sweetest type is Jiro. Fuyu is preferred in Japan as they ripe late in the autumn and are pest-resistant while sweetest Jiro ripe earlier and are likely more pest-prone. It is very common to grow the Fuyu type in the countryside in Japan as they grow without any care. China is the largest producer of persimmons, 1.84 million tons a year, followed by Korea, 250000 tons, Japan 230000, Brazil 160000, Italy 40000 and Israel 40000. The United States grows comparatively few persimmons compared to the major …