Fabulous Feijoas

Full name: Feijoa sellowiana
Also known as: Pineapple Guava
Origin: Southern Brazil, Colombia, Uruguay & Northern Argentina
Grows: 1 - 7 meters in height, similar to an Olive Tree
Fruit: Small apple size, soft white flesh

Feijoa Fruit is a highly delicious, versatile and adaptable fruit, which in the last few years is beginning to pop up on the commercial production radar for many reasons.

New Zealand has an ideal growing climate for the fruit, and you will commonly see Feijoa trees in many people's back yards as it is very robust, requires virtually no care to grow, and it is pretty much pest and disease-resistant.

The feijoa is a smooth green skin, soft-white-flesh, tree-ripening fruit about the size of a small apple. It has a unique flavour that is familiar and liked by most New Zealanders. The skin has many other properties too (more about that later!)

OK, So there is a couple of ways of eating this delicious little morsel.

HARD MAN'S METHOD
If you are 'hard' (manly and tough) in New Zealand lingo, you might just try eating it as it is. (It always pays to wash first of course). Now the problem with this is that the skin is pretty tart and bitter (but you're tough remember)??
Some people do like it this way as it can be a nice contrast from the sweet flesh inside. This can be a good option if it is packed in your lunchbox, or you find some whilst tramping through the bush perhaps.



SLICE AND SCOOP METHOD
OK, if you are normal you will probably eat a feijoa like this. Simply take a small knife and cut the fruit in half. Now that was simple right?
Now take a spoon and scoop out each half, and slide that puppy right on into your pie hole.
If you find yourself without a spoon, usually you can just pinch the end and the majority of the fruit will slide right out.



THE BUTCHERING METHOD
This is only used when Feijoas are to be utilised in cooking situations. As I already mentioned, because a Feijoa is so versitile, they are used in many recipes (see below for more on that).
Back to the method, just take a knife and butcher off the skin so that you are left with a naked feijoa. Now cut, dice, slice, squeeze, juice, cook, grate, whatever tickles your imagination. RIP little feijoa.

Fresh Feijoas are an excellent sourse of Vitamin C, and low in calories and high in minerals, fibre and antioxidants.

I'll include the nutrient stats below, but for now, remember that feijoas have magic antioxidant activity containing proanthocyanins. (Whatever these are, apparently they are very very good for our health - and who doesn't want that huh!).

Many other fruits and vegetables that contain high levels of Proanthocyanins are often bitter tasting; making the great tasting Feijoa that also provides excellent health benefits a natural winner all-round! Yay!

SERVING SIZE INFO ON 1 FEIJOA
Calories 14
Total Fat 0.2g
Saturated Fat 0
Cholesterol 0mg
Sodium 1 mg
Total Carbohydrates 3g
Dietary Fiber 0.6g
Sugars 2.7g
Protein 0.3g
Calcium 4.8g
Potassium 44mg

Feijoas have forever been a staple in the Kiwi's diet. It is almost a tradition to pick the fruit off the ground from under the tree with the family during it's short season (April - May).

It's a quarter past seven at night and dusk is swiftly falling, but that hasn't discouraged four little entrepreneurs. An hour earlier, they detected that several feijoas had already fallen from the tree in the back yard, and as the kiwi kids rushed outside to gather the treasure and start slurping it, a plan was quickly formed. Out came the plastic bags and a sign was made:

The kids are at the gate, flagging down cars... and these fruity feijoas are selling like hotcakes!!! yessiree, in twenty minutes, the kiddos've made *six* whole dollars!!!

As well as being eaten raw as a dessert or in salads, the use for feijoas is almost endless!

They can be cooked in puddings, utilised as pastry fillings, used in fritters, dumplings, fruit cakes, pies and tarts, or employed as flavoring for ice cream, sorbets and drinks. Feijoas are also preserved in syrup in glass jars, or crystallized. Chutney, jam, jelly, conserve, relish, sauce or sparkling wine are also common uses for feijoa.

Below are some well known products that make use of this nifty fruit!

Hubbard's Feijoa Cereal

Bennett's Feijoa Chocolate

Tiptop Feijoa Vibe Iceblocks

Dewinkel Feijoa and Passionfruit Yoghurt

A Range of Feijoa Juices

Not to mention all the non-edible items you can buy with Feijoa's in, soaps, shampoos, body wash, oils... great for gifts for Homesick Kiwi's... hint hint....

So you may know that New Zealander's are world-reknown for their drinking habits. So it's only natural that we would come up with a way to merge our favourite fruit with alcohol! Yes, we've made it into wine, added it to vodka and made liquers from it.... ohhh the possibilities!

Go to any supermarket and you will have no problem finding feijoa wine. Yes, that is wine which uses fermented feijoas instead of grapes. And it's pretty nice too!

A New Zealand Vodka brand making it's name around the world, 42 Below's name comes from sitting at 42 below latitude on the world map. Pretty clever huh!
Anyway, this company has made a Feijoa flavoured Vodka, which only makes sense really!

To truely appreciate this Kiwi Masterpiece, visit their website by clicking on the bottle below:
***Please remember you must be of drinking age to enter this site***



Also, they have tonnes of TV adverts playing on YouTube, they are hilarious so you HAVE to go check em' out!