The art of hoshigaki at home: Some people got into sourdough. I turned to a Japanese method of preserving fruit.

Hoshigaki (from the Japanese terms hoshi, meaning dried, and kaki, persimmon) are dried persimmons, made with a centuries-old technique that’s both incredibly simple and ridiculously labor-intensive. Each persimmon must be peeled, tied, hung, and gently massaged every day for four to six weeks, until they reach the perfect level of dried-yet-pliant texture and darkly sweet, warm spice-y flavor. Over time, the fruit’s natural sugars crystallize into a powdery white skin across its surface, the prized “sugar bloom” that sets hoshigaki apart from more mundane dried fruit.