Persimmon Season 2025
Late fall is persimmon season in the Bay Area, and every year Village Harvest is proud to pick and share tons of this delicious, nutritious fruit with local food assistance organizations. Our volunteers help neighbors from the South Bay to the mid-Peninsula share fruit from persimmon trees in their yards, and we also organize larger group harvests from small orchards in the South County area and occasionally from old orchards in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
In 2025 our harvest expectations were modest because the fruit fly pest quarantine prevented harvests in a large portion of our home havest area, and because several of our favorite orchard locations reported they had few fruit this year. But as the leaves fell and the persimmons stood out like ornaments on the trees, we discovered previously hidden abundance. By the final harvest in December, a total of 197 volunteers had picked 20,287 pounds of persimmon for food banks throughout our region.
Two varieties of persimmons are the most common in our area:
- Fuyu persimmons are round and are ready to eat when they are fully orange and still firm. They can be enjoyed like fresh apples, eaten out of hand or sliced to add to salads and more.
- Hachiya persimmons are larger and have a pointed end like a big acorn. After they're picked Hachiyas need to ripen off the tree until they are fully soft and the inside becomes sweet,sticky, and delicous. Hachiyas are often called "baking persimmons" because they are a great addition to cakes, breads, muffins, and other baked goods. They are also called "astringent persimmons" - because if you bite into one while it's still firm, the bitter taste will deter you from taking another bite!
Check out the two photo galleries below; one gallery from the November 2025 home and orchard persimmon harvests, and the second from our largest harvest with 60 volunteers at a Fuyu persimmon orchard in San Martin in December. Over two harvests, this one orchard yielded a total of 11,400 pounds of fresh fruit donated to Second Harvest of Silicon Valley and St. Anthony's Padua Dining Room and pantry in Menlo Park.
