At the Santa Monica Farmer’s Market, people are picking out the perfect persimmons. 

It’s the tail end of the season but at the Briar Patch stand, Wilma Causey still has an abundant supply. 

“It’s a simple farming for the persimmon,” says Causey.

She's been selling at the Market for 33 years.

With the kickoff of Santa Monica Restaurant Week in honor of California Restaurant Month, local chefs have been flocking to Causey's stand to get this year’s special ingredient; the persimmon.

“We have two variety of persimmons, we have the fuyu, which the people are liking to eat hard and then we have the hachiya persimmon which has to be eaten very soft,” says Causey.

One of those local chefs who visited Causey's stand was Mark Cannon of the Curious Palate. Causey gave him some free persimmons, which he will take back with to his restaurant.

At The Curious Palate, Cannon is gathering everything he needs to make his restaurant week dish.

His restaurant is one of more than 30 in Santa Monica that's participating in this event, which runs through January 13.

“Upside down cake sundae is what we’re making, so we got the persimmon ice cream, some bittersweet chocolate sauce we made and the last thing we’re going to top it with is like a pecan crumble right there that we made,” said Cannon.

Cannon assumes most chefs will use the fuyu persimmon which is hard like an apple. But for his cake, hachiya is better suited.  

“We are using the hachiya which is the persimmon that you have to ripen to the point where it’s like a pulpy tomato,” says Cannon.

And he likes that the event has a theme. 

Last year was the pomegranate, and his dish was so popular, he kept it on the menu.

“Maybe we’ll have the persimmon sundae on the menu for the coming year as well. Although there is a problem with that, persimmons are highly seasonal,” said Cannon.

He hopes his guests will want to try his sundae, or else they’ll have to wait until persimmons are in season again in the fall.