A day in the life of a feijoa

Some of you have asked about feijoas and how I use them so I thought I'd do  silly little post and show you 'a day in the life' of any feijoa that is silly enough to land on my side of the boundary fence :)

Here is a bunch of feijoa hanging over our side of the fence. Not quite ready to drop yet but with a little bit of wind some of them will soon go.

We collect and bring them in and they go in the fruit bowl, on the bench and in icecream pottles while they wait to be sorted. The very small ones go straight into the green recycling bin. I can't be bothered with trying to do  anything with them.

The large ones we distribute around family and friends and wherever else they are wanted. I'll probably leave some in a community roadside pantry or two as well. These ones are cut and ready to eat. I never grew up eating them and so I think they are an acquired taste. People tend to love or hate them. Bob is not a fan.

The smaller ones I stew and freeze and pull them out to use with my cereal or in warm winter puddings. I have made a feijoa loaf once or twice as well which is quite nice. Someone asked me last season how I cooked them and I don't think I replied so here you are. I cut them in half as above and scoop out the flesh, put in a saucepan and cover with water. Sweeten if you like, I do. Bring to boiling point, remove from heat and leave to stew in their own juice. And that's it. Nothing complicated. Nothing added except sweetner of your own liking.

And into a container to freeze once they are cool.

When I've finished what I need, they are quite labour intensive when you have a lot to process, and when family and friends start refusing them I put them out by the gate in a bucket for people to take. I've already had one young fellow ask at the gate if they were going out this year. He's coming back this week sometime to check :)

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A little bit of information about the feijoa courtesy of Wikipedia.

Feijoa sellowiana (or pineapple guava),. It is the only species in the genus Feijoa. It is native mainly to the highlands of Colombia, southern Brazil and the hills of northeast Uruguay, but it can also be found in eastern Paraguay and northern Argentina.^{[5][6]: 114} It is known as quirina (lusitanized from the Kaingang: kanê kriyne^[a])^[6]: 111 or as feijoa, pronounced fay-ho-uh^[b] in Spanish-speaking countries of South America, ^[7][8] and fee-jo-uh^[c] in the United States and New Zealand.^[9][10] The Kaingang are a tribe indigenous to southern Brazil.

It is an evergreen shrub or small tree, 1–7 metres (3.3–23.0 ft) in height.^[11] The oblong leaves are about 5 cm (2.0 in) long, dark green on the upper side and white underneath. The flowers have five whitish petals which are puffy, possibly filled with some gas. There are about 25 dark red stamens projecting from the centre.^[12]

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And that is all for the moment. I hope you enjoyed this wee post :)

Keep well, 

blessings,

Diana