The start of frost weather in December usually marks the end of the persimmon season in California. As the last remaining fruit was picked off the trees in the last weeks of 2011, growers were optimistic that the little-known fruit would gain in popularity.
Interest in persimmons increased slightly, according to Tosh Kuratomi of Otow Orchard, though he admits that most consumers are still unaware of the fruit.
“There's been a surge in popularity, I think, it seems like it's growing. But until the public becomes aware of all of the varieties, it still won't have a lot of popularity.”
The lack of a large, centralized marketing effort has also played a part in the lack of awareness among consumers. This leads to a lack of a general audience for persimmons, so the fruit is mostly consumed by niche groups.
As Jim Stewart of WesPak Sales points out, most persimmons are consumed by very specific groups of consumers.
“The fruit goes mostly to groups that come from places where they're already familiar with persimmons,” he says, “it's very specific, there's no general market.”
The persimmon season usually starts in October in Calfornia, and continues into December. This year, growers reported a slight delay in the season.
“The season was late this year,” says Stewart. “We usually start in mid-October, but this year the season was late by about one week.”
Though he's not certain what caused the delay, Stewart believes it may have been a confluence of factors, including last year's weather.
“The bloom time ran later than usual,” he notes, “we also had some unseasonably warm weather, and for persimmons, it's really necessary to get the contrast between warm days and cool nights in order to get the right color.”
But he reiterates, “it really could have been a combination of factors.”
Kuratomi is also unsure about the cause of the delay, though he, like Stewart, suspects the weather played a part.
“Everything was about two weeks late,” he points out, though he posits that late Spring rains may have affected the season.
“It rained awfully late,” he says, “it just rained at the wrong time.”
Both noted that the timing of the season didn't affect crop, though Stewart describes their crop as having a greater percentage of smaller fruit.
“Our volume was similar to previous years,” says Stewart, “we just had more smaller sizes of fruit; the set was just heavier.”