Strange fruits

I have never knowingly eaten a persimmon and so yesterday when I saw them for sale in the supermarket I had, of course, to buy a few.

Not really knowing what to do with them I turned, naturally enough, to that fount of all knowledge, Wikipedia.

Apparently persimmons are a very tasty, sweet treat. But, reading on, they come with a warning! Unripe persimmons, it seems, contain the soluble tannin shibuol, which, upon contact with stomach acid, polymerizes to form a gluey coagulum, a "foodball" or phytobezoar, that can affix with other stomach matter to form very hard masses that are almost woody in consistency. Getting rid of a phytobezoar may involve surgery although Coca-Cola will help shrink them.

Methinks that I shall wait until my fruits are very ripe indeed!