For breakfast I had homemade granola and goats milk. For my morning snack I had a hard boiled egg and a kiwi. For lunch, I had a salad with spinach, romaine and cilantro. I added canned, organic chicken, crimini mushrooms, grapes, English cucumber, apple cider vinegar and olive oil to my salad. For my afternoon snack, I had a persimmon and raw nuts, which included: almonds, hazelnuts, Brazil nuts and walnuts. For dinner, I had baked turkey and black olives.
Persimmons are coming off the tree now, so I thought it would be a good time to talk about them in my post. Persimmons are an edible fruit, ranging from yellow-orange to dark red-orange, depending on species and variety. The shape also ranges due to species and may be spherical, acorn, or pumpkin shaped.
Compared to apples, persimmons have higher dietary fiber, sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, and manganese, but lower levels of copper and zinc. According to Wikipedia, they also contain vitamin C and provitamin A beta-carotene. Persimmons also contain phytochemicals.
Persimmons can be eaten fresh, raw, dried or cooked. When they are eaten fresh, they can be peeled and eaten whole or cut in quarters like an apple. One way to consume a ripe persimmon is to remove the top leaf with a paring knife and scoop out the fruit with a spoon. Very ripe persimmons can be eaten by removing the top leaf, splitting in half and eating from the inside out.
In China, Korea, Japan and Vietnam, persimmons are typically hand dried in the field for two to three weeks after harvest. The fruit is then dried, by exposure to heat, for several days before going to market. In Korea dried persimmons are used to make a spicy punch, while older fermented fruit is used to make persimmon vinegar. In Taiwan, persimmons are jarred and sealed with limewater to get rid of bitternes: sold as a “crisp persimmon.” In some parts of Korea the dried fruits are used to make tea. Lastly, in the United States, persimmons are commonly known for the use of baking pies, breads, puddings, cookies, salads and as a topping on salads.
I personally like to eat the apple ones (pictured at the top of this post) similar to an apple. I remove the leaf off the top of the fruit, peel the fruit and slice it quarters and eat. With the persimmon shaped as an acorn, I like to let them ripe (to the point of mush), puree them and put them in smoothies. Sometimes the puréed fruit is good for making persimmon bread too.
microbiomel 