Updates

1 - Enhancing the Marketability of California Persimmons 2 - Updates 3 - Pictures 4 - Contact Information 5 - Stakeholder Email List

• December 2020
  Several peer-reviewed journal articles from the project have been published in the last few years. Contact Dr. Milczarek if you'd like a copy of any of these articles.
  
  • Synthesis of descriptive sensory attributes and hedonic rankings of dried persimmon (Diospyros kaki sp.)
  • Nondestructive determination of the astringency of pollination-variant persimmons (Diospyros kaki) using near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) relaxometry
  • Physical, Microbial, and Chemical Quality of Hot-Air-Dried Persimmon (Diospyros kaki) Chips during Storage
  • Texture of Hot-Air-Dried Persimmon (Diospyros kaki) Chips: Instrumental, Sensory, and Consumer Input for Product Development
• July 2017
  The point of sale flyers are now available!  You can download electronic versions and request printed versions of the flyers from this page. 
• May 2017 - June 2017
  It's hard to believe we've reached the end of the project!  There have been lots of wrap-up activities to take care of in late spring.  In addition, team members have been sharing key learnings from the project with stakeholder groups.  Rebecca Milczarek presented on persimmon phenotypes and preservation at the University of California Cooperative Extension Master Food Preserver Program's statewide conference in early June.  Carl Olsen and Rachelle Woods attended the Institute of Food Technologists Annual Meeting in Las Vegas to present posters on the texture and sensory properties of the dried persimmons. 
• December 2016 - April 2017
  After completing our second (and final) persimmon harvest season, we focused on chemical analyses of the flash-frozen puree and the dried persimmon chips.  The sensory panel again assisted in characterizing the flavor, taste, and texture of the dried chips.  We conducted a final consumer tasting panel in late March.  Team members Ana Vilches and Ivana Sedej presented posters on the fresh persimmons' sugar/organic acid content and organoleptic properties/vitamin C levels/anti-oxidant contents at the American Chemical Society National Meeting in San Francisco in April. 
• October 2016 - November 2016
  Persimmon season has arrived in full force; you can view the team busily measuring and processing this year's samples on the Pictures page.  In October, we made a well-received presentation about the practical aspects of drying persimmons to a group of UCCE Master Food Preservers (and some Master Gardeners!) at the NCGR Wolfskill Orchard. We have posted some pictures from this event and the annual persimmon/pomegranate tasting at the NCGR. 
• September 2016
  The first persimmon samples of the 2016-2017 season are coming in later this month!  Check out this timely article on persimmons from the California Farm Bureau Federation and the California Bountiful Foundation.
• May 2016 - August 2016
  We are spending the summer maintaining the persimmon trees at the National Clonal Germplasm Repository, finishing up the chemical analyses, crunching all the data from the 2015 harvest season, and presenting our results to the scientific community.  Team member Rachelle Woods presented the poster "Consumer Evaluation of Persimmon (Diospyros kaki) Varieties for a Chip-Style Product" at the Institute of Food Technologists Annual Meeting in Chicago in July. Project Director Andrew Breksa gave an oral presentation entitled "Reducing Astringency in Persimmons Through Processing, An Approach for Increasing Marketability" at the American Chemical Society National Meeting in Philadelphia in August.
• December 2015 - April 2016
  After a very busy persimmon harvest season, we turned our attention to analyzing the flash-frozen puree and the dried persimmon chips.  The sensory panel was trained to evaluate the chips; we needed to add on texture evaluation to the flavor and taste evaluation they had already been doing.
• September 2015 - November 2015
  Due to California's ongoing drought, persimmon season started early this year, but we were prepared for it.  We decided to practice our harvest, handling, analysis, and processing procedures with Diospyros virginiana fruit from the National Clonal Germplasm Repository the week of Labor Day.  The "real" samples (all Diospyros kaki) started pouring in that next week, and we have been going non-stop ever since!  You can get a glimpse of our activities on the Pictures page.  Also in November, we brought dried samples from the project to the annual persimmon and pomegranate tasting at the National Clonal Germplasm Repository.  Visitors to the tasting ranked the dried persimmon chips from their least favorite to their most favorite.  We will use this consumer preference data to narrow down our (very wide!) set of candidate persimmon varieties to the top 10 or so varieties that yield the most-preferred dried product.  Snapshots from the tasting are also on the Pictures page.
• August 2015
  This has been our month for organization and logistics!  We set up our plan for coordinating fruit harvests from both the National Clonal Germplasm Repository and commercial growers.  We learned a lot about protecting the fruit during transport.  We also started training the characterization sensory panel at the Western Regional Research Center this month.  This panel of trained tasters will characterize every fresh and dried persimmon sample in terms of aroma, flavor, and taste. 
• July 2015
  Our call to California persimmon growers for fruit for the 2015 fall harvest has gone out by postal mail and email.  If you are a grower in California who would like to contribute fruit to this year's study, and you have not received an invitation yet, please contact Dr. Milczarek. 
• February 2015 - June 2015
  We have been busy developing methods for analyzing the composition of both fresh (quick frozen) and dried persimmons from the 2014 harvest.  We have also been taking care of the developing persimmon fruit in the National Clonal Germplasm Repository.  We will use these fruit, plus fruit from California growers, in our studies during the upcoming 2015 harvest season.  We also practiced taking standardized pictures of the fruit; we have been practicing with peaches, since persimmons aren't in season yet! 
• October 2014 - January 2015
  This season, we developed methods for analyzing the composition of persimmons and drying the fruit.  We developed these methods using five persimmon cultivars - four from the National Clonal Germplasm Repository and one from a commercial grower.  See the Pictures page for some snapshots of our activities this season.  
• November 2014
  Some of our dried persimmons were featured at the annual persimmon/pomegranate tasting this month!  See the delicious display on the Pictures page.
• October 2014
  Our project team was awarded a 2014 Specialty Crop Block Grant from the California Department of Food and Agriculture.  Stay tuned to this website for updates!

 

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