Now that we are on our way back home, and before we return to our regular farm blog, I wanted to send this short note from Hong Kong.
This quick trip to Asia has been a great cultural experience for Tristan. In fact a hearty meal at the Po Lin Buddhist monastery has helped him renew his interest in vegetarianism.
With the incredible diversity of foods offered in Asia, our trip was also a small study in food production. We were looking to Asia for concepts we might bring back to Canada...after all our Arctic Kiwis are of Chinese origin.
An example of this is the Persimmon. This fruit is very popular in all major Asian nations (from Korea, to China and Japan). Although available in Canada, it is not often found and as far as value added processing, I have personally never been exposed to anything made with Persimmon.
This is a shame because we know this is a fruit (technically a large berry) we can grow in Niagara. It is also a very versatile fruit, which surprisingly can be dried to look like these patties in the following picture.
There are different versions of dried Persimmon and this is the Chinese version we found in Hong Kong (for roughly 50 cents a piece). There is a very expensive Japanese version where the Persimmon is "massaged" into shape (normally sold for about $4 a piece).
How do they taste? The texture is that of dates however they are not as sweet and have a much milder flavour. I believe they would go very well with a nice Brie.
These are the kinds of things we just love experimenting with and I am now certain we are coming back with a few new ideas for the farm.
Finally I would like to say that we have been getting a lot of very encouraging feedback on our farmhouse and barn restoration. I would like to thank our readers for this and let you know that we will keep updating everyone on the progress of construction throughout the year.
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