Grapes are Georgia's autumnal jewelry; in winter, the country wears earrings and beads of persimmons. Fruits of rich color on bare branches, what beauty!
Tskaltubo, Georgia on the Google.maps
This is where I am - in Tskaltubo town, a thriving resort during the Soviet era, famous for its medicinal radon waters. There was even a train Moscow - Tskaltubo. Nowadays, less travelers visit the town, and many sanatoriums stay abandoned (while other have been renovated and function).
Private houses in Tskaltubo, Georgia
Aside derelict architecture, there is another tempting object for photography - persimmons. Bright and juicy, they often hang on trees through winter days, becoming food for birds and eventually worms and all sorts of unicellular creatures.
I was lucky to witness sparrows feeding on persimmon:
Usually people pick persimmons, eat them fresh and dry them - very tasty dried persimmons come out.
But fruits continue hanging on some trees - someone is too lazy or health does not allow picking persimmons on high branches. Some garden owners live far, in the capital of the country, for example. Other people keep fruits on trees for decorative purposes.
Ripe persimmon on the top of a tree
To high to reach. Let birds have food in winter months
There are several varieties of persimmon in Tskaltubo gardens. One of them has elongated orange fruits with a yellowish tinge (like in the image above), others are round or round with four bumps.
Persimmon with bumps
Some of the varieties take on an almost red color when fully ripe.
Persimmon, while solid, has an astringent taste, but there is a type that is tasty even in a semi-green form, it is called karalioki (კარალიოკი, королёк in Russian).
All these varieties are originated from East Asia as I know but there is also a local species called Caucasian persimmon, Diospyros lotus in Latin (I have not seen it in Tskaltubo yet, so there are no photos of Caucasian persimmon in the post).
I photographed these fruits yesterday, the weather was beautiful, around +10 in the afternoon and sunny but, today in the morning, there was ice on puddles and this is good - low temperatures make persimmons even more delicious.
What about you? Have you ever tried this fruit? Are there many in gardens / stores in your country?
I took these images with a Nikkor 70-300mm on a full-frame DSLR Nikon D750 in Tskaltubo, Georgia on December 30, 2022