And right over here is the orchard itself this beautiful place, full of Family History, rich Family History of beautiful, delicious california fruit, this orchard is definitely a fine example of californias gold. Well, this isnt exactly the way i thought we were gonna be startin off this adventure, but here i am standin on top of a big old pile of well, this is horse manure, and theres a whole field piled high with horse manure. Tosh, tell us what in the world were lookin at out there . Why did you bring us down here to all this manure . Well, were going organic, and we wanted to do farmin without any chemical additives or pesticides and so forth, so weve gone to a completely nospray, no chemical program. And the horse manure is just part of the fertilization for the soil. And were tryin vermiculture, were tryin biodynamics whatever works. Were just tryin a bunch of different things. From horse manure to what are we lookin at now, tosh . Welland youd think they were our pet geese, but these guys come every year. They spend sixeight months here maybe three or 400 of em altogether maybe even more. So these are wild geese. Thats correct. Do they live here for a couple of weeks or well, they live here for several months, but they do take off, so theyre not resident geese where they stay year around. They know were coming, dont they . Yes, they do cause theyre theyre always alert and mindful that were intruders. Oh, look. [geese squawking] oh, thats the most beautiful thing ive ever seen. And im overwhelmed by these colors too. Persimmons have some of the best colors when the leaves turned. Im from back east, and to look at these colors just makes me homesick. Yeah. Now is this persimmon . That is sunburn. It gets sugar and then we get a hundred degree weather and it just cooks em. So that ones not any good. Its not any good, but its a lot sweeter than a blemishfree hachiya persimmon. Can i take this off . You can. You cant eat it until its waterballoon soft, but its hard. Yes, it is. Now what do you got the bucket on there for . Arent you gonna well, i can do that. I thought we were gonna harvest some out here. I tell everybody im just a tractor driver. Its pretty. Its pretty. I think thats why we keep doing this kind of stuff because theres a lot of beauty and theres a lot of connectionconnection to where our food comes from. And then the other thing is the sustainability, you know . We may not be making a livin at it yet, but we hope to get there and with all this other, what should i call it, responsibility to the earth and to the environment. Yeah. So, otherwise, this would be houses. Yeah. Look at this. Itd be mansions. Its not houses today. Boy, look at this. Its pretty much this beautiful orchard and there is your big old is that an oak tree over there . Yes, it is. Yes, it is. And were talking about how many acres here . There is still 40 acres 20 acres of orchard and about 20 acres of open space that were doing a composting. The strawberry farmers leasing two, three acres from us and trying to keep it like it was in the old days. And when you talk about the old days, this is as good a time as any. Well, lets stand right here with this as a backdrop because some of these trees look like theyre pretty old. This orchard has been here since 1910, 1911, somewhere around there, and my wifes grandfather planted some of these trees. His name was . Kitchitaro kawano. That was a good quiz. We hate to take out the old trees yeah. Because we know of the family connection. And at the same time, you can see were puttin in new trees every year. Yeah. Were putting a hundred, 200 new trees every year to let people know that were not giving up. Were gonna keep on movin. Boy, i think we have come at the absolute perfect time of the year. Look at the colors and look at the persimmons on these trees. This two right here are absolutely covered. Well, its interesting because we actually have harvested these things two or three, maybe even four times already. Wait a minute. Youve stripped these trees down three or four times already . Well, we come through, and the first thing we do is we look for color and we look for size. Since were dryin them, we dont want em to end up being tiny. So thats one reason why look at and there are hundreds of persimmons in these trees. There are. Oh my. Persimmons are very, very productive. And i think for homeowners, they dont prune and they dont thin. And thats one reason why theyre not as productive as our orchard would be. Yeah. We run a danger of braking branches so and thats why the wooden props under em. And i never wanted to do that. I wanted the trees to go strong on their own yeah. And not be just but theyre so heavy with the fruit. Very much. And look. When the leaves change, its hard to see the fruit because the fruit and the leaves blend together. Yeah. Now see, i would fault the workers if they missed a nice persimmon up there, but this year, i probably done most of the picking myself, and its easy to miss em. So you got 40 acres, how many of em in persimmons . Probably six, seven acres of persimmons. So the other 34 acres are inwell, you grow a little bit of everything here. Yes. Peaches, plums, asian pear, apples, jujube, quince oh my gosh. Pomegranatesyou name it. We put it in the ground and it will grow. All of this on 40 acres. Thats correct. In order to keep the place runnin, we opened up a retail fruit stand. And then we need diversity and we need to be able to supply the stand. Now were gettin down to business. What are we lookin at now . Well, each persimmon has to be peeled before we can try them. And so look at this. Veronica is quick and skillful and peels about 15 to 18,000 of these in a season. Look at the size of those persimmons. They wont be that size when its dried, probably 1 4 of the size all right. Now weve been talkin about dryin the persimmons. This gets us into the whole story here that were lookin at. And boy, look at this. What a statement this makes. And maybe we should let your wife pick up the story from here. Hi, im huell howser. Hello, huell. Your name . Im chris. Nice to meet you. What are we lookin at here because this is the payoff right here, isnt it . Yeah. This is the prices of hoshigaki making dried persimmons. Its called what . Hoshigaki. Okay. Now walk us through that. Is this a japanese thing . Is this a japanese american thing . Well, its a process of drying persimmons that came from japan when my grandfather came in the late 1800s, and we have continued to do it in this mannerthe same way he did it many, many years ago. So he did it here on this farm in Placer County when he started this orchard back in 1911. Thats right. Still being done the same way. Basically yes. Shes laughing. We should meet this lady right over here. Hi. Im huell howser. Oh, shes got her glove on. Nice to meet you. Now this lady is this is my mother. Her name is helen otow. And shes been on this orchard her whole life. Her whole life. Yes, yes. More or less. Wow. And what are you doin right here . Im hanging up the persimmons thats been peeled and hang up to dry. So how does this work . Show us how this works . You put a string yeah. Aroundoh, look. So theres well, you make it pretty tight. Theres one of em. Yeah. Here goes the other one, and then you just put it right over here. What a beautiful sight. Look at this. Yes. Its captivating. Now, do we know how far back in time this process goes . No. That i dont know. I mean, do we think it went back hundreds of years, thousands of years . I would guess at least a couple of hundred years. Yeah. Wow. Is this still done in japan . I believe it is. Yes, it is still done in japan. Although i think that they have modernized the way they do it. They have machines to peel it. They dont peel it by hand. And i guess their process is a little bit different than ours and so theyve modernized it in japan. Yeah. And were still doing it the oldfashioned way. Youve kept it the oldfashioned way here in granite bay. Well, good for you. Its more modern in japan than here now, from your motherinlaw, helen, hangin em like this, what happens . They just hang on this board here for how long . Well, if were fortunate enough to have good weather like we do, maybe four or five days, then theyre ready to become to begin the massaging process. The massaging process. And what is that . Is that what goes on over here . Thats exactly right. So, wait a minute. These have been hangin for how long . Four or five days . Correct. So theyve already began to shrink up a little bit. Yes. You can see that some of em have more wrinkles than others, and then some of em are still fairly smooth. And when they get to the point where you can see em give, theyre ready for just a gentle light massage. Can i touch these . Fine. Go ahead. Well, i mean why did you hesitate for a minute . Well, because i always wear gloves but, you know, for the sake of experience, youre gonna have to do it. Im gonna have to touch it. Yeah. So you just massage it. And you can feel the difference between that one and this one, for example. Try this one and youd wow. You can tell the difference right away. Yeah. This ones harder. Thats correct. So we dont like to do it too early and how much massage do you give on it . Well, i guess just enough to feel the flesh start to give. Can you give us a massage right here . Oh, okay. We just kind of i like to roll em in my fingers, and i like to try to work the ridge so its not going to dry hard and chewy or brittle or tough, i guess. So thats about 30second right. All the way around. And we go right on down the line and then well come back in two or three days and well do it again, and then if it starts to get really like a water balloon, then we kind to leave it alone. What do you mean like a water balloon . There will be some that here you go. Itup in here, you can see that the skin is real wet, and if were not careful, itll go [makes sound] pop open and the insides will come out. So you know, this is like a piece of art. We use this is one of the most beautiful assemblages of fruit that i think ive ever seen anywhere. We compare it to making wine, fine wine. And its a food art. There are different styles. People do different things. Some people try different shortcuts. We have tried shortcuts and we always go back to the long method. It just makes a better more tasty or more better textured finished product. Boy, this takes this is handson to the extreme, literally and figuratively. About six weeks before we market them, handled 15, 20 times each. Massaged that many times. Massaged probably a dozen to 15 times and then the peeling, the tying, the packing, it takes a long time. From the first drying stage, they stay here how long . Okay, they are here about four days, five days. Five days here, and then we move over to stage two, and youve got them set up in this little shed here. What is this all about . Well, you know, its nice that theres this glass sun exposure but we have to open the windows in order to keep it cool enough. If it dries too fast, it gets too hard, too quick, and so, there are a lot of variables here. Yeah. I mean, if it came on a cold spell or if it was too wet or there you go. Just like any kind of farming, it really depends a lot on theon nature, doesnt it . Very much so. We call it faithbased agriculture. Absolutely. It takes a lot of faith and it takes a lot of intervention that is not ours, so we really well, now, what are we looking at here . Okay. So, these are hachiya. They seem to have a little more wrinkle and a little darker in color, and these are the gionbo variety. And as you can tell, they dry this shriveled up more. And a better color. And so, in the finished product, these actually are much more attractive than these. But then, if they the final stages when theyre coated in white sugar, natural sugar from inside, nobody can tell. Yeah. But thistheyve still got a ways to go yeah. Here, dont they. And all these wrinkles are susceptible to mold. Oh, wow. And so then you have to worry about mold. So, we watch the weather and they said 30 percent chance of showers today, and that was, you know its not a good thing. No, no. So we now, youre massaging these too. Yes. Can i massage one . I got the glove on now. Very good. You justoh, wow. Water balloon . Yeah. Now, these are feeling like theyre full of liquid. Yeah. And then if were not careful and we break this membrane, the insides just goosh out, so so, you just kind of barely and were trying to move it so that the wrinkles are in a different place, and then that will allow that moisture to dry out. Boy, this is fascinating again. Just justand this whole shed look at this is full of these things. We come out and we spend evenings out here just massaging and straightening up wrinkles, and i think we went in 1 00 last night, 12 30 for another massage. Boy, by the time these things are ready, youd get to know each one of em very well, dont you . Yes. And we try to identify some oh, that was a big one, that was a long one, how did it dry. And when were out there picking fruit, a lot of times we drop our fruit or we stick it in a Different Box because we say, ah, its gonna be hard to dry that one. Yeah. So so, you can tell early on, and boy, doesnt this have a nicesee, this is about this is like looking at history here. We thinkwhen we drive into this place and really give it much thought, its like stepping back in time. All right. Where do you want me to put these . What are put it right there behind the fresh one. Okay. Now, were bringing these out here because this, i think, is one of the most interesting parts of the whole process. What are we looking out here . Okay. These are after theyve been removed from the rack, we will and we think theyre too damp, well stick em in a Brown Grocery bag and that helps em to dry a little bit more. And then, when theyre in that bag, we like to bounce the bag around. Youre shaking em around. So, we shake em around. And because we shake em around, we try to trim up the calyx so that it doesnt splinter and get sawdust or little particles of wood all over the surface that people will be eating. These are very strangelooking when they dry up, arent they . And then, if you play with these, youll actually see them sugaring up. Look at this. Sugaring up. Now, what do you mean by sugaring up . And this is what is so fascinating to me. Well, when you work in the sugar bush, i guess, you got certain phrases that sugaring up. They dont use around here. These are sugaring up well because what were lookin at right there this is natural sugar right. Coming from the inside of the persimmons. The moisture had come to the surface and evaporated or look at this. Glazed on the surface, and then whenever you massage em, youre actually breaking up that glaze. Its pretty much like the windows in a movie whenever they break a window and the sugar water shatters, it looks just like glass glaring, and so, were basically doing the same thing. Were breaking up the juice thats dried on the surface and it glitters. And this isthis is natural 100 percent, natural sugar. Sugar. And if we were to take the sugar off there, scrape it or whatever else we do to get it off, it would not be as sweet as sugar, but it definitely is sweet and it has its own flavor. All right. So, youre shaking it up. Now, what does that do again . That should help to ventilate it, get the moisture actually, i would leave the plastic bag open to allow the moisture to escape when i do that, but also, that action that action will also break up break the sugar. Yup. So wow. Look at this. Certainly, to shake a whole box is quicker than massaging each and every individual. Now, this shows well, actually, starting over here, this shows the whole process. Here, the persimmons right off the tree, and then here they are look at thisespecially the two that are white. Yup, it runs right around until theyre like that. And like my motherinlaw said, if were not careful, these will get harder than a rock, and thats another reason for using plastic bags because it helps to hold the moisture in. So, theres a fine line between being perfectly cured and ready to eat, and being hard as a rock. My grandfather used to make them and he showed me how. And my motherinlaw would not take mine to ship. She said, theyre too hard. Really . And so, i had to learn all over again. But my grandfather used to slice his up, stick it in his coffee, you chop em up, stick em in your oatmeal, so if it was too hard, it absorbs some moisture. Can i eat this just like it is . Certainly. Well, i dont know. Im asking you instead of him cause he was gonna have me eat one off the tree and get all puckered. Oh, no. Oh, no, no. So, i could just bite into this . Yes, you can. Its much this is the way people eat them. Yes. Just right on the end. Umhmm. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. These are absolutely wonderful. Very good. Wait a minute, theres a pit in there. Oh, im sorry. Sweet fruit always have seeds, and we put a little disclaimer in thewhen we sell the package and it always says, watch out for the seeds. I didnt see the disclaimer and you didnt tell me. But theyre great. Boy. And look at the color on the inside. Boy. Its golden now, your husband is the one who came up with the idea of selling these dried persimmons. Yeah. He thought that there was a future in it. Until then, people didnt know much about it and just the japanese would eat it a little bit on christmas times and things like that. So, he made that gift box. He ordered that special because he thought that if we package it, people will buy it for gifts, and thats what and then he made all these racks and we started, you know, drying more and commercially try em. They caught on. Yeah. Well, look, they have a beautiful look to em, dont they . Well, they do, yeah. What do you think it is about these things thats so captivates people and i dont know. Everybody that comes here, they just surprised to see all this, you know . Yeah. Well, youre used to it, but to someone like me seeing it for the first time, this is beautiful. Well, its something we always had and its just some people say, oh, it looks like Christmas Lights coming down, you know, and all that. But to me, its just persimmons. [laughter] its called hoshigaki, and its been going on for generations here in Placer County. Still going on. Still going on in japan itself, and its absolutely spectacular to see it done the oldfashioned way. Now, youre not getting rich off this, are you . No. We might make 4, 5 an hour. Every time we have to hire more help because of expanding, our hourly wage goes down. But but youre rich in the experience and in the history and in the fact that you have kept this family, this orchard in your family cause it could easily been gobbled up like all the land around here has for big housing developments. Well, thats true. Thats true. And were very fortunate that our kids come out and help us, and chris has the grandkids working and helping us. So, hopefully itll continue. Wow. I sure hope it does. Thank you very much for allowing us to watch this in progress today. Thank you very much. Thank you for allowing me to eat a couple of these things, even though i almost chipped a tooth twice. But thats part of it, isnt it . Right. We have to warn people, there are seeds in persimmons and there are seeds in persimmons, but, boy, look, theres also a lot of sugar, a lot of history, and a lot of love. And these little driedup, shriveled up persimmons are very much a part not only of the history of california, but of californias gold. Weve had an absolutely wonderful day here on this family orchard. [music] captioning performed by peoplesupport transcription captioning well, hello, everybody, im huell howser and i sure hope you enjoyed this Beautiful Day we spent on this historic California Family orchard. If youd like to go on this adventure again, share it with family or friends, or perhaps donate a copy to your local school or library, its available on videocassette and on dvd. All you have to do is call 18002665727 and well be glad to send it to you right away. Inactive activities on a glorious day huh . Lets get out there and play yeah sweet. Whew play play there are lots of great play ideas online. Annenberg media by narrator welcome to episode two of destinos an introduction to spanish