かきが好きです。

こどものときにおきなわで住みました。

そのときにかきをはじめ食べました。

テキサスにかきの木を植えります。

去年は木が効果のありました。

いまかきをいただいています。

おいしいですね。

Generally Speaking

I love persimmons. The first time I ate one was when I was a child living in Okinawa. (In 1991, when I returned from Japan after teaching English there) I planted a Japanese persimmon tree here in Texas. Last year it bore its first fruit. From now on I can eat all the persimmons I want. They're delicious, aren't they?

質問とコメント

1. I wasn't able to express very much of the story I wanted to tell in this post. I was fascinated by persimmons as a child in Okinawa. But in the US, they are expensive and difficult to find. When I went to Japan in 1989, I couldn't eat enough of them. I was always happy when another teacher brought in a bag of persimmons to share at the office from their tree at home. I was fascinated by the strings of persimmons hanging from the balconies to dry.

2. When I returned to Texas and bought this house, the first tree I planted was a Japanese persimmon Diospyros kaki 'Eureka'. It is supposed to fruit well in Texas (one of the few trees that does since the climate is too warm for apples and pears and cherries). Persimmon trees are rather slow to bear fruit. But now that this one is bearing, I look forward to eating persimmons for a long time to come.

3. There is a Texas persimmon, Diospyros texana, but it has a very small bitter fruit that is edible only to birds. I've planted one of those, too. The tree does not look anything like a Japanese persimmon, but it has an attractive peeling bark.