Cut up and ready to eat - yum! 
A bucketful of feijoas collected from underneath one of our trees+ + + +
“Would you like some feijoas? We’ve got more than we know what to do with.”
“Thanks, but our tree is loaded this year. The kids have been eating nothing but feijoas, and I’ve been cooking with them, but we can’t get through them fast enough!”
Feijoa season is in full swing here in Aotearoa-New Zealand. I don’t know how many times I’ve overheard, or taken part in, variations of this conversation over the past month.
What is a feijoa? I hear some of you ask. If you are not from New Zealand, you might know it as the pineapple guava. I like this description of the feijoa from Wikipedia:
The fruit, maturing in autumn, is green, ellipsoid, and about the size of a chicken's egg. It has a sweet, aromatic, flavour. The flesh is juicy and is divided into a clear jelly-like seed pulp and a firmer, slightly gritty, opaque, flesh nearer the skin ... German botanist Otto Karl Berg named the fruit Feijoa after Joao da Silva Feijo, a Portuguese botanist born in Brazil ... Large quantities are grown in New Zealand, where the fruit is a popular garden tree and the fruit is commonly available in season.
My mouth waters just reading that description. I want to grab a teaspoon and scoop some of that sweet, aromatic flesh into my mouth right now!
We have two feijoa trees in our garden. This year, in early autumn, my flatmate told me there were no feijoas on the trees at all this year. He says that every year, forgetting that forming feijoas are remarkably well disguised among their leaves. It happens the same way every year: one day we noticed a few feijoas on the ground [feijoas are usually harvested off the ground, not the tree], then a few more. Then came the deluge.
And this year it really has been a deluge. The mild, dry days of this autumn have produced a bumper crop on both our trees - on everyone's trees.
I had a bad cold recently. I don’t know about you, but colds always suppress my appetite and I tend to live on a minimum of food, with plenty of water and hot-lemon-and-honey drinks. But this year I craved feijoas, ate very little other than feijoas, and they actually made me feel better. They are the perfect fruit for autumn and early winter, as they are high in Vitamin C.
There are all kinds of recipes for using feijoas - feijoa wine, feijoa cake, feijoa relish, feijoa jam, casseroles with feijoas in them, feijoa ice-cream. Almost anything you can think of can be made with feijoas! One of my favourites, however, is my flatmate's feijoa and apple crumble, made with feijoas from from our trees and apples from our Granny Smith tree. Feijoa and apple was the original fruit for this crumble but of course you can make it with any seasonal fruit. [Note: this is a recipe he made himself, so everything in it is approximate.]
STEVE'S FEIJOA AND APPLE CRUMBLE
“Would you like some feijoas? We’ve got more than we know what to do with.”
“Thanks, but our tree is loaded this year. The kids have been eating nothing but feijoas, and I’ve been cooking with them, but we can’t get through them fast enough!”
Feijoa season is in full swing here in Aotearoa-New Zealand. I don’t know how many times I’ve overheard, or taken part in, variations of this conversation over the past month.
What is a feijoa? I hear some of you ask. If you are not from New Zealand, you might know it as the pineapple guava. I like this description of the feijoa from Wikipedia:
The fruit, maturing in autumn, is green, ellipsoid, and about the size of a chicken's egg. It has a sweet, aromatic, flavour. The flesh is juicy and is divided into a clear jelly-like seed pulp and a firmer, slightly gritty, opaque, flesh nearer the skin ... German botanist Otto Karl Berg named the fruit Feijoa after Joao da Silva Feijo, a Portuguese botanist born in Brazil ... Large quantities are grown in New Zealand, where the fruit is a popular garden tree and the fruit is commonly available in season.
My mouth waters just reading that description. I want to grab a teaspoon and scoop some of that sweet, aromatic flesh into my mouth right now!
We have two feijoa trees in our garden. This year, in early autumn, my flatmate told me there were no feijoas on the trees at all this year. He says that every year, forgetting that forming feijoas are remarkably well disguised among their leaves. It happens the same way every year: one day we noticed a few feijoas on the ground [feijoas are usually harvested off the ground, not the tree], then a few more. Then came the deluge.
And this year it really has been a deluge. The mild, dry days of this autumn have produced a bumper crop on both our trees - on everyone's trees.
I had a bad cold recently. I don’t know about you, but colds always suppress my appetite and I tend to live on a minimum of food, with plenty of water and hot-lemon-and-honey drinks. But this year I craved feijoas, ate very little other than feijoas, and they actually made me feel better. They are the perfect fruit for autumn and early winter, as they are high in Vitamin C.
There are all kinds of recipes for using feijoas - feijoa wine, feijoa cake, feijoa relish, feijoa jam, casseroles with feijoas in them, feijoa ice-cream. Almost anything you can think of can be made with feijoas! One of my favourites, however, is my flatmate's feijoa and apple crumble, made with feijoas from from our trees and apples from our Granny Smith tree. Feijoa and apple was the original fruit for this crumble but of course you can make it with any seasonal fruit. [Note: this is a recipe he made himself, so everything in it is approximate.]
STEVE'S FEIJOA AND APPLE CRUMBLE
Crumble:
50g butter
3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup raw sugar
optional: 1tsp mixed spice
Fruit:
Fruit:
3 large apples, peeled and chopped
flesh of 12 large feijoas
1T raw sugar
For the topping: rub the butter into the dry ingredients, except the sugar. Once a crumbly mixture has formed, add the sugar and mix.
For the fruit: combine all ingredients in a bowl and soften in the microwave for a few minutes.
Turn the fruit in to a pie or baking dish. Top with the crumble mixture. Bake at 170 degrees C until brown on top [approximately 30 - 45 minutes].
Enjoy!
For the topping: rub the butter into the dry ingredients, except the sugar. Once a crumbly mixture has formed, add the sugar and mix.
For the fruit: combine all ingredients in a bowl and soften in the microwave for a few minutes.
Turn the fruit in to a pie or baking dish. Top with the crumble mixture. Bake at 170 degrees C until brown on top [approximately 30 - 45 minutes].
Enjoy!
6 comments:
oh thank-you for thinking of me! i wish i could lick that feijoa right off your screen. and that really is quite a haul - amazing!
i shall file the recipe away until we are back in nz and can try it for myself.
hope you are feeling better now.
Thanks! I can't wait to eat Steve's Feijoa and Apple Crumble! I loooove feijoas but I've never made anything with them.
Kia ora Anne-Marie,
This feijoa season started pretty slow, but is finishing with a flourish, and each morning we are picking up fist sized beauties that not even the possums can keep up with! Such a tasty and easy breakfast. I find it amazing to go into the supermarkets and see them for sale at over 6 bucks a kilo, and guess I am lucky to have such a fine tree in our back yard. Happy eating!
Cheers,
Robb
wow! I have never heard of this fruit before! It looks and sounds delicious!
y'know i've been thinking about posting a recipe for a while. yours is more organised than mine.
I bought some rhubarb for a Rhubarb crumble the other day - and it's all a bit "oh 2 sticks should be enough, and then some different flour, just make it up as you go along" - I use a mixture of rice and gram flour about 2-1 mix coz the gram gives it a nice nutty flavour, but can be overpowering.
Maybe i should give you a laugh by finally publishing my "spicy rice" and cucumber/onion riatta recipe's!
I've never had on, nor in fact heard of them until right this moment! I am going to see if I can track some down at the market. Hell, we get dragon fruit, why not feijoas?
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