North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Lucky Pittman <lucky.pittman@murraystate.edu>]

Jerry mentioned the Japanese method of hand-drying persimmons. 
Below is an archived message he'd sent to the NAFEX list a year or so
back, with photos.
There is also a nice discussion of hoshigaki at this site: 
http://www.sarep.ucdavis.edu/cdpp/foodsystems/executivesummary.pdf


At 02:23 PM 11/25/2004, Jerry wrote:

I'm taking the liberty to reproduce three of the pictures in the article and include here, with less quality than originally published. The original article and pictures are by Benjamin F. Kuo and published in the November-December 2004 issue of "FRUIT GARDENER" news magazine of, The California Rare Fruit Growers Assoc. of which I'm a member. Their web address is WWW.crfg.org. Wonderful organization for all fruit lovers as they grow everything out there.
                                                                             





If you look closely the strings can be seen.

They are a delicacy in Japan and given as gifts on special occasions. One thing Kuo pointed out is the massaging breaks down the internal fibers and the sugars pass through the dried surface and crystallize on the surface. 

Jerry