It’s October in our Sunnyvale garden so the feijoa tree (aka pineapple guava) is dropping its fruit. I filled a 4 gallon bucket. The fresh fruit has a great taste but a short shelf life of a few weeks. It does not freeze well. In past years I have shared the fresh fruit with friends, family, co-workers, and interested people on the NextDoor network.
The flavor and fragrance of feijoa defies categorization. To quote from Glass Petal Smoke:
“On sight, the fruit resembles a cross between an elongated lime and a kiwi. The nose expects to smell something green, but the immediate impression of a feijoa is a tropical mélange that evokes guava, strawberry, pineapple and violet notes. There is something about the green element in feijoa that is at once familiar, yet seemingly incongruous and medicinal…evocative of eucalyptus with wintergreen and berry facets.”
What else can you do with feijoas? Feijoa are really popular in New Zealand and Australia. The Rotorua Daily Post had some suggestions:
10 things to do with feijoas. Recipes include desserts, preserves, stews, chutney, curry, salsa, and wine. This year I used a dehydrater. The house had a wonderful sweet tropical smell for most of the afternoon as the fruit dried. The dried fruit is about 1/8 the volume of the fresh.
- Rinse the fruit (since the fruit signals that it is ripe by dropping to the ground)
- Wash/scrub/disinfect the fruit using water with a little bleach
- Rinse again
- To reduce browning due to oxidation, mix a batch of lemon juice with water or use a product like Ball’s Fruit-Fresh Produce Protector (which is dextrose, ascorbic acid, and citric acid).
- Slice the fruit in half; scoop out the fruit; and place in the ascorbic juice, making sure all surfaces are coated
- Slice larger pieces to be thinner
- When the bowl is full, transfer te fruit to a dehydrator tray using a slotted spoon
- When the tray is full, transfer the tray to the dehydrator and start the machine
- Store the dried fruit in a air-tight container or bag
