North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Donna &/or Kieran" <holycow@cookeville.com>]

Melissa,  Go ahead and plant your selected Z5 American persimmon, and then 
once it's grown pretty well, put on a few scions of some non-astringent 
kakis and see what happens.  They'll probably die, but it won't cost you 
much to find out.
   What about other foods?  Do you find grocery carrots or turnip greens 
terribly bitter?  You may be one of the small percentage of the population 
who are "supertasters", with twice the normal number of taste buds.  Such 
people find mildly bitter foods unbearably bitter.  There are ways around 
the problem, like making sure there is enough fat in such foods to coat the 
tongue a bit and thus reduce the contact.  Someone else said their 
persimmons weren't as good as they'd hoped.  For both of you, when you have 
enough persimmons coming in, sieve the RIPE fruit and use it in an 
applesauce cake recipe.  The little bit of astringency will be diluted by 
other ingredients and butter, and the result is superb.     Donna