Dehydrated Persimmon Slices

We have this gorgeous persimmon tree in our backyard. The fruit of the hachiya variety is very astringent and makes your tongue feel furry if eaten straight off the tree. However, if you do something to them, they are quite tasty.

This year we did not have a very good yield because of a freak hail storm in October that dented the fruit causing them to rot faster than normal otherwise they hang like beautiful ornaments on the tree all winter long. I love this tree and this year I am learning that they are for more than making cookies, or looking pretty on the tree.

We had a few lone persimmons left on our tree that the birds hadn't decided to eat. However they weren't quite ripe enough to turn into puree. A friend told me to dehydrate them. So I did. Oh. My. Goodness! Such a great - dare I say it - genius idea. If you like dried apples or dried papaya, then you will most likely enjoy these.

 It is so very easy to dehydrate these. All you need is a trusty dehydrator and something to slice with. Really that pretty much is it. I sliced the fruit horizontally into slices about an 1/8 of an inch thick and placed the slices on the dehydrator trays. Don't they look so pretty?

I plugged the thing in and at the end of the day they looked like this.

The kids insisted I do this with more of them next year. I will do their bidding. These are so good, I wish I had more fruit on the tree.