What can i do with Freijoa's?

What can i do with Freijoa's?

Feijoa's

So what exactly is a Feijoa and where did they come from?

It seems Feijoas were introduced into New Zealand during the 1920`s. In some countries the feijoa is also called "pineapple guava". The feijoa was first collected in southern Brazil by a German explorer Freidrich Sellow in 1815 and introduced to Europe by French botanist and horticulturist, Dr Edouard Andre, in 1890. It was named after Brazilian botanist, Joam da Silva Feijo.


.Feijoa Recipes


New Zealand has an ideal climate that produce's large fruit, and because it has few pests this enabled feijoa's to be grown organically (chemical sprays therefore are not applied to New Zealand fruit, making NZ feijoa's some of the most natural fruit available).

The New Zealand season runs from late March to June but don't fret as the fruit can be easily frozen without loss of quality. The fruit has a very distinctive, aromatic flavour with
tropical overtones including pineapple and guava hence if you live in the USA you may know this fruit as Pineapple Guava.

When are the fruit ready to eat?

Feijoas are prime and ready to eat when they are slightly soft and when the inner jellied sections in the centre of the fruit are clear. Depending on the variety this may happen on the tree or within 2 -5 days of natural fruit drop. The fruit is unripe when the jellied sections are white and past it's best when they are browning. (Unpleasant flavours develop when browning occurs and the fruit should be discarded.) Handle the feijoas very gently - as you would ripe peaches. If you have a tree be ready for the drop as it happens very quickly and all at once you can be flooded with ripe fruit. Usually if you have a
friend with a feijoa tree they are more than happy to give away much fruit as it is really hard to use that much fruit all at once. Making jams and chutneys is the best way to use excess and they are great for the ensuing winter months.

There are reasonable amounts of vitamin C in a standard sized fruit, around 100gm of vitamin C and around 45calories. Great fibre content and they are naturally full of good winter antioxidants.

If you want to buy a tree they are usually easy to find in the plant nursery's of New Zealand and the western states of the USA.

Storage

If you've bought fruit that are not quite ripe, just leave them at room temperature and they'll ripen in a day or two; speed up the process by putting them in a paper bag with an apple if you need to. Ripe feijoas are best stored in the fridge.
Feijoas are incredibly versatile: use them in muffins, loaves, desserts, cakes, jams, chutneys, sorbets, smoothies... you name it! Ginger and pineapple are both great with fejoas, so try combos like feijoa and ginger bran muffins or feijoa and pineapple sorbet. Here are some more ideas:

Eat them just as they are, straight from the skin with a spoon. Look for pale-coloured, soft-textured centres.

Add chopped feijoas to salads. Not only a taste sensation, the vitamin C will enhance your absorption of iron from cereals and plant foods in the meal.

Use in a fresh salsa: try chopped celery, tomatoes, red onion, avocado and feijoa. Add chilli flakes, mint, coriander and a generous squeeze of lemon.

Use your favourite banana cake recipe to make banana and feijoa cake – or feijoa and ginger cake.

Scoop out the centres and pack into plastic bags with a squeeze of lemon juice, and freeze for later baking.

Add to apple for a delicious pie filling.

Use in muffins with other fruit. They go very well with apple and almonds.

Poach in a little sugar syrup with a knob of ginger.
Spoon over cereal with yoghurt.

Add to juices and smoothies – try banana, feijoas, vanilla yoghurt and honey.

Mix into fruit salad with fresh and canned fruit. Especially nice with pineapple.

Make a feijoa crumble: top fruit with a mix of rolled oats, sliced almonds, brown sugar and coconut flakes. Or try our Feijoa crumble recipe.

Purée in a blender with lemon juice, vanilla and a little sugar. Use in baking instead of half the sugar.

Feijoa Recipes