Anybody know how to make persimmons ripen quickly? Mine are still hard as rocks.

Hi how to ripen persimmons faster....this is our family christmas tradition for years, I have been doing it myself for over 20 years.
I purchace the persimmons 8 days in advance,so i can choose the biggest and best ones...lol
But they are hard,not rip. So when I get home, immediately I get a BLACK garbage bag, big enough to cover the intire crate that the persimmons come in. I place the crate in the garbage bag, then I add 3 rippen apples of any kind. Fold the bad so no light can enter.
In a fruit cellar or Garage is fine. If you have neither then rippening my be sooner. After 5 days open bag and feel persimmons if they are over 80 % rip, remove bag and apples for remaining 2 days. If not leave an extra todays. If at 50% then put in room tempurature with bag and apples last 2 days. I never had to myself personaly put in room temperature. Thats it enjoy. 😊

I bought a bag of rock hard persimmons at Walmart and was going to wait for them to ripen when I remembered a story Mom had told me about her youth. All of her friends, in Oklahoma, would wait until the first hard frost, and then they would go pick wild persimmons in the woods. So I decided to try the freezer for a while. I forgot it for about 4 hours and it was frozen through, but next morning after it thawed it was perfect. I wish my Mom was here so I could thank her.

@Will Lee - um. Doesn't that affect the taste?

For hachiyas - stand them up (pointy side down, stem/collar up) in a container, box, whatever keeps them upright. Pour a bit of soysauce (less or about a teaspoon for me) into the stem/collar and let them sit. They will ripen due to some chemical reaction that someone else will have to explain. Works every time.

There are 2 types of persimmons. The one pictured is the type that stays hard yet are sweet when eaten.

I have found that keeping the persimmons in a brown paper bag with bananas will ripen them within a few days. Just make sure they don't freeze (that does soften and sweeten them, but doesn't remove the tannins that make them feel astringent and bitter). Apples could work, I imagine, but they would probably ripen much more slowly. If it's warm where you are, placing an astringent persimmon in sunlight will remove the tannins very quickly.

i purchased a box of beautiful huge persimmons five days ago
i placed the box in a plastic bag, with a few apples on top of the persimmons, closed the bag, well, surprise, they are ready to eat,
i just had one , and it was delicious, last year i purchased a few of them
keep them on the kitchen table not covered, it took a month for them to be ready, so thank to this system i was able to eat one of my favorite fruits
just in five days,

Lay them (hachiyas) side by side in a flat box. They shouldn't touch each other. Place a few apples in the group. Keep the box inside out of the cold and cover them at night. These instructions are from an Italian website and have worked for me.

I'll just echo the "wait" approach endorsed here. I tried a trick once: freeze the hachiyas and then let them thaw out - it affected the texture but they were still puckery as heck. Total tannin overload. So - just wanted to save you from that outcome. :-)

I don't even buy hachiya any more as they always seem to take too long to ripen and then I forget about them and they rot. I only buy fuyu!

Thanks, SMSF I have the Hachiya ones that I use to make a rich, dense bread. Guess my next blog post will have to wait another week ;)

Lizthechef, it depends on what type of persimmons you have. The two most commonly seen are Fuyu and Hachiya. The flattened type, Fuyu, do not really soften and are ripe and sweet when firm. The rounded, more apple-shaped Hachiya are the ones that ripen to a custard-like texture. I'm not sure why those would not be ripening for you. Could it be that you have the flat-shaped Fuyus? If so, try one. If it's a Fuyu it will taste good. The Hachiyas are too astringent to eat while firm.

Persimmons ripen differently than other fruits, so paper bag or banana won't help. Expect to wait for several weeks for a really hard persimmon to ripen. One of the things that affects the most how they ripen and even if they do ( and their flavor) is when they are picked.They need to remain on the tree untill all of it's leaves have fallen and need to go though at least one frost night before you pick them. Patience might be about the only thing you can do.

we were discussing persimmons at the potluck party & i believe it Takes a REAALLLY long time Maybe add a banana into the paper bag, just as a source of ethylene??