The History of Our Persimmon Business

Persimmons are a unique fruit, so why and how did we decide to start growing them? Great question!

Our persimmon business started in 2006 as a learning opportunity and project for third-generation Barnes Farming owner, Josh Barnes. At the time, he was just 13 years old but similar to his sister, Bethany, and the watermelon side of the business, Josh was eager to grow and manage his own crop. A family friend suggested Fuyu persimmons as a niche crop with a growing market. Fuyu persimmons are crisp and mildly sweet compared to the mushy, jammy American persimmons native to the Southeastern US. Tree fruit also piqued Josh’s interest because they have the benefit of utilizing sloped land prone to erosion and not conducive to sweetpotato farming. With the help of his dad, Josh purchased and planted 2,000 Fuyu persimmon saplings that year (2006).

Little by little the trees began to mature and bear fruit. Two years later, Josh harvested a few hundred persimmons. In 2009, Josh had his first sizeable harvest and sold a few persimmons at the local farmer’s market. However, he noticed consumers were hesitant to purchase the persimmons because of their connotation with unripe American persimmons. These persimmons rely on autumn’s first frost to ripen their fruit. If you eat their fruit before they are ripe, you’ll be sure to never do it again! They will turn your mouth inside out with a bitter dryness akin to intense tannins in wine. This is not the case for Fuyu persimmons, though. They ripen on their own in mid-September and don’t have the same intense sour taste if you happen to eat one that’s unripe. Josh educated consumers on this difference with some success, but ultimately found cities to the west like Raleigh, Cary, and Durham were a better market. Consumers in this area were already educated on the deliciousness of Fuyu persimmons and local co-op grocery stores and a few Whole Foods locations were eager to offer a local Fuyu offering since much of this variety is grown in California.    

Josh with his friend and right-hand man at the time, Francisco, holding the first small harvest of persimmons in 2008.

As with any new farming venture, the challenges didn’t stop with misinformed consumers. There was a late frost the spring after Josh’s first bumper crop. This was detrimental to the fruit buds that just began to emerge at the time. The frost killed the buds and even killed a few trees. Josh persisted and nursed the trees along that year to a small harvest.

Josh managed the orchard through his high school and college years, and the earnings from the fruit helped fund his college education. While attending North Carolina State University, a key course in Josh’s studies was a fruit tree production class that taught him the scientific horticultural practices that are key to a successful orchard.

After graduating from NC State in 2015, Josh decided to double the orchard’s acreage by planting trees at a new location a mile from the other trees. This new orchard was a chance to put all of his horticultural learnings into practice. These trees are equipped with irrigation and a cutting-edge tree-fruit setup.

Today, Josh has more than 3,000 Fuyu persimmon trees. Josh’s persimmons are sold under our Farm Pak brand as indicated by the purple sticker on the bottom of the persimmon (as pictured above). In the past week, we created a new “Fuyu for You” brand that will be sold in clear bags at Market Basket stores in the northeast. All the persimmons from our trees are certified organic.

Josh is now Barnes Farming’s vice president and among his many duties and responsibilities, he still finds time to get out to the orchard and care for his persimmons.