Quiet moments with persimmons, Hongkeng village
One of the nice things about living in a tulou within a village was being able to just wander and appreciate the quieter moments. Especially since I arrived in Hongkeng 洪坑 village the day before October holiday started, there weren’t many other tourists around, and by the time I checked in, chatted with the innkeeper, and made it out of the inn to do some touring, it was around 4pm and most had left anyway.
On the bridge from the inn to the mini tulou on the other side, there was a most beautiful display of orange. What where they?
Persimmons! And they were all meticulously peeled too.
Seeing me take pictures, an older woman beckoned me over with her hand, to her perch looking down on the bridge. She then opened up a wooden cabinet door to show me more trays of persimmon being air dried with heat. An amazing reveal! I especially noticed how the doors operated silently and seemed to fit snugly on their own.
There was clearly a gradient of more dried persimmon on top, going down to fresher ones at the bottom.
And beside her was a box of the finished product, all maintaining a brilliant orange.
Of course, I had to buy some. And though I really wanted just a couple to taste, there was no settling for any less than a big bagful on her part!
Just such a pleasing color and shape.
Here is her little operation center. School just let out and a neighborhood child and her mother (I think) went to chat with the persimmon seller. The oven is on the left where you can see smoke rising up, and the wood logs for the oven are to the left of the oven.
By the Prince of Tulou, Zhengcheng building (振成楼), there was also a striking gradient of oranges - more persimmon being dried.
And then over by Kuiju building (奎聚楼), I saw a girl peeling the persimmon with a vegetable peeler, and beyond her, more persimmon in trays.
Some of these were different - split open into a star shape!
A woman came along offering up her dried persimmon. Of course I bought some of these too, but pleaded my case that I had already bought them so really didn’t want very much!
These were all delicious; though surprisingly not as sweet as I imagined. I thought they’d be sweet like dates, but they weren’t. By the end of my trip, they had all turned a dark brown, but I guess that is simply an indication that there were no additives to the dried persimmon to preserve color!
