This tree laden with ripe persimmons is 750 years old.
Despite its age green shoots still sprout from its branches each year.
Its home is Sangju a small town in North Gyeongsang Province which is filled with the sweet scent of persimmons each fall.
Famous for this fruit every corner of Sangju is awash in orange.
In fact it accounts for 60 percent of the persimmons produced in Korea.
[Interview : Kim Ki-hwan, Sangju resident] "The best dried persimmons come from Sangju, because of its ideal climate. Cold in the morning and warm during the day."
Left in the warm autumn sun the persimmons dry to turn into a Korean delicacy called "ggotgam."
The process of producing the dried fruit is not simple and requires a lot of work.
Ripe persimmons have to be hand picked and their skin peeled off.
The stem is then tied with a thread and the fruit is hung to dry, taking about 45 days to reach perfection.
Although cheese cakes and tarts and other sweets have become popular items on Korean dessert menus dried persimmons remain extremely sought after.
As they have done for centuries around this time of year farmers in Sangju are busy preparing the delicacies hoping for another bumper crop.
Sam Len, Arirang News.
OCT 27, 2009
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in National News |
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Arirang Town
Wednesday, FEB 10, 2010, (KST) 
