It was Sunday in Santa Clara on a sunny weekend sandwiched between storms.
“This is midway between a kid’s lemonade stand and Safeway,” said Ron Kleinman.
He was standing on the sidewalk, monitoring his wife as she sorted through boxes of glossy, golden-orange persimmons in the back of a pickup truck parked in a neighborhood driveway.
His wife, who guarded her name closely and did not want to be photographed, was evaluating three different persimmon types,
Acorn-shaped Japanese Hachiyas are astringent and must be very soft before eating or baking with them. Fuyus are round and squat and, like an apple, eaten hard, with or without the peel.
His wife’s third possibility was a cross between a Hachiya and a Fuyu. It can be eaten hard or soft. Nobody at the driveway persimmon stand knew its name.
The persimmons ripened late this year, so the neighborhood seller didn’t start offering them until the last week of October. Some of the Fuyus were picked from a tree planted decades ago by the seller’s late father.
“I’ve had a total in my life of three persimmons. One was yesterday,” said Kleinman, who has lived in Santa Clara since 1975.
He quit his day job and now teaches computer science part-time at DeAnza College in Cupertino.
He and his wife walked past the driveway persimmon stand the day before on one of their daily neighborhood walks. They were given a free sample that drew them back on Sunday with cash and a backpack.
“Where we live now used to be called the Valley of Heart’s Delight,” said Kleinman, recalling the days when fruit orchards blossomed throughout Santa Clara Valley.
The Kleinmans planted and maintain fruit trees in their own yard—Meyer lemon, Eureka lemon, and Santa Rosa Plum.
“This is the only neighborhood where you can have four fruit trees and have a fruit stand,” said Kleinman, counting out $7.50 for five pounds of Fuyus. His wife zipped them into his backpack.
“How about ‘Persimmon-Eating Part-Time Professor Supports Local Fruit Stand’ for a story headline?” Kleinman suggested as he and his unnamed wife resumed their walk, heading home.
Won’t You Be My Neighbor is a column where we casually interview people we meet in Silicon Valley. The Won’t You Be My Neighbor column hopes to highlight what makes Santa Clara, Sunnyvale and the rest of the South Bay special — the people who live, work and play here.
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