Inaka Always Have Best Produce! Hashimoto-City

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Did you know that there are foods in this world that taste better than you ever imagined?

Wakayama Prefecture, where we live, is world famous for its tourist’s destinations such as Kumano Kodo and Koyasan. But not many tourists know about the world’s most delicious variety of fruits grown there. Blessed with abundant nature and a mild climate, Wakayama is a very suitable place for fruit production, and a wide variety of fruits are grown here.

Among them, Wakayama Prefecture boasts the largest production of persimmons in Japan, and is known for the high quality of its persimmons.

The Largest Persimmon Hervest in Japan

In autumn, persimmons are at their most delicious. The bright orange color of persimmons warms the heart visually, and their sweetness and refreshing flavor are a perfect combination.

Supermarkets throughout Japan are lined with Wakayama-grown persimmons, and many people pick them up for their delicious taste.

How to Buy Good One in Persimmon Paradise

In fact, there is a way to get the freshest and tastiest persimmons. That is to buy persimmons directly from local farmers here. Persimmons grown with great care by farmers are packed with freshness and sweetness that cannot be found in supermarkets.

How to Find the Good Store

Let me show you how we bought our persimmons one day.

That day, we really wanted to eat persimmons, so we headed to the farmers market we usually go to. Unfortunately, the market was already closed at that time of the day. (5:00 PM) So we decided to take a random drive around the neighborhood to find a place where we could buy persimmons other than at the farmers’ market.

While driving around, you may wonder, “What in the world are we looking for?”. As some of you may know, what I was looking for was a scene that is truly unique to rural Japan. It is an unmanned roadside assistance facility. Not uncommon in any Inaka, these are small, unmanned sales stands selling agricultural products and local specialties.

Yay! There it is. We drive 10 minutes and found the stand sells persimmons after 5:00 PM.

The Price Range

Two types of persimmons were sold here. Hiratane persimmon and Fuyugaki persimmon. Each of them were sold for 100 yen per bag.

I like hiratane more, because its meat is soft, juicy and sweet everywhere. We decide to buy 2 bags of them.

Payment

The payment-system here is not very difficult. First, put coins into this rusty “automatic payment machine” (or you can call it an empty can) and then take one bag of persimmon. Not too difficult, huh?

These kinds of stands are where local farmers sell their fresh fruits and vegetables directly to the public. The system is simple but warm, with passersby taking only the amount of product they need and putting their payment in a box. The persimmons available here are truly freshly picked, grown with great care by the farmers, so they are exceptionally delicious.

We bought 2 bags of percimon, for 200 yen.

If you are around Koyasan, I recommend you to just drop by around this area in fall season.

Tasty Tips

You can get Hashimoto’s persimmon via Rakuten’s Furusato Nozei 🎵


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