I just picked a persimmon from a tree...?!
Answers: and i looked it up and it's a fuyu which looks like a flatened tomato and hard. i was reading and someone wrote it's deadly if you eat it unripe. how can you tell it's ripe? is it ok to eat? it's from a neighbors tree. what do i do with it? please explain with detail
if it is flat and hard it's not ready. it should be slightly mushy, a nice pretty orange color, will smell amazing when you cut it open....and I've never seen a flat one? only ones that are similar to the size and shape of a tomato. You don't eat the skin, it doesn't taste good and leaves a horrible "fuzzy" feeling in your mouth. I've always eaten them by scooping out the insides with a spoon.
They aren't poisonous if you eat them unripe, but they are extremely bitter. You won't take more than one bite.
If you wait until they're ripe, and you get a few more, they make pretty good jam or bread.
Persimmons are usually not good until after a good frost. They are sorta of tangy. Get a church cookbook and you should find some good recipes for persimmon pudding or persimmon bread.