Posts Tagged: pineapple guava
EZ as Pie-napple Guava
I've been growing pineapple guava, Feijoa sellowiana, for years now. When I was first putting my landscape in, after I moved to Fairfield, I wanted to include things that you could eat. I also wanted to have things that were fairly drought tolerant. I have a small yard, so I was somewhat limited in choices. I didn't have room for an orchard. I was attracted to the pineapple guava plant because it was different than the standard fruit. It has glossy medium green leaves that are silvery on the underside. It has an unusual edible flower with multiple red stamens. The fruit is admittedly a bit homely, a green oval about two to three inches long. Another selling point for pineapple guava was that you didn't have to agonize over when it was at the perfect state of ripeness; when it was ready, it just fell to the ground and you picked it up.
Fast forward over twenty years. My three pineapple guava shrubs have done very well. Many jars of jam and chutney have been made and many muffins have been baked. The shrubs have been pruned back yearly in December (not the optimal time) so that I could give bagfuls of branches to the Master Gardener Wreath Workshop. As the shrubs grew in circumference and density harvesting the fruit became a bit more challenging. The ground is covered in Vinca minor, so sometimes the fruit would seem to just disappear when it hit the ground. When it would fall inward near the trunk, it would take a lot of bending or scrabbling about on my hands and knees to reach back and get it. Sometimes, while doing this, smaller branches would whip back and hit me in the face or arms.
Harvest season always seems to take me by surprise. It usually starts in late September or early October and goes for four to six weeks. Each year I find myself thinking “It’s too soon. Summer can't really be over yet, can it?" This year was the same, I went around to the side yard to water and there they were scattered on the ground. I picked up a few easy ones then peered into the darkness underneath the shrubs where I could see many more. Now unfortunately, I have been having a bit of a flare up of my low back pain. When I saw those fruit, I thought there was no way I was going to be able to crawl around under those shrubs. Visions of clouds of flies and fruit flies feasting on rotting fruit flew through my brain.
Suddenly I thought of my EZ Reacher tool, which I usually use to get stuff that falls behind bookshelves or between the washer and dryer. It worked perfectly to pick up the fruit. It didn't crush or bruise the fruit at all. I didn't have to put any strain on my back. I didn't have any scratch marks on my face or arms from the smaller branches. For the life of me, I can't figure out why I didn't think of this sooner. I guess I had just mentally put that tool in the storage section marked "Indoors" in my brain.
Now I am probably going to find out that I am the last person to figure this out and that the rest of you have been using this for years in your garden. But just in case I am not the last person, thought I would put it out there, as it might save some pain and strain for someone else.
Pineapple guava tool. (photos by Karen Metz)
Reaching into the tough places.
Feijoa--You can eat that?
I first tasted a feijoa (fay-zho-uh, or pineapple guava) as a student here at UC Davis many years ago. A friend showed me her secret trees (south side of Wellman in Davis — tons on the ground right now!), and I was hooked. I didn’t think much of it at the time, other than thinking this is one of the best things I have ever eaten in my life. It tastes better than candy, and ripens right around Halloween - sweet! I had never seen or heard of a feijoa. You likely haven’t either, so I’m writing to introduce you.
First a little history. This subtropical plant originated in the higher altitude regions of central South America, but has since been introduced and grown commercially in Europe, California, New Zealand, South Africa and the area around southern Russia. In California, Sutter and Yuba counties were the hot spot for growing pineapple guavas in the late 1980s. Farmers in that area, who benefitted from the kiwi expansion a few years before, enthusiastically jumped into the feijoa business, however did not realize the same success.
According to Adel Kader, UC Cooperative Extension specialist emeritus, "the nurseries that provided the trees were not accurate in identifying the different variety of trees, and there was a large difference in the taste.”
So a farmer had no idea if he had a good tree or not. Additionally, judging fruit maturity is difficult since the fruits do not significantly change color as they ripen and drop to the ground when they’re mature. So the optimal picking strategy is by “touch picking” where if you touch a fruit and, if it comes off the plant, it’s ready to eat. Imagine doing that for a whole orchard.
Back to the present. I rediscovered feijoas after riding my bike down our street before the green waste pick-up a couple years ago and noticed about 30 feijoas in my neighbor’s pick-up pile! They didn’t know you could eat them. So, yes, I picked them out of the pile and introduced my neighbors to the deliciousness of the pineapple guava. And then I promptly went out and bought myself a tree to plant in my own yard.
Feijoas taste like taking the best elements of strawberry, guava and pineapple and mixing them together. They smell pleasantly sweet and flowery. To eat a feijoa, cut (or rip) it in half and scoop out the inside creamy white flesh (a little brownish color is fine to eat). Feijoas are a good source of vitamin C, fiber and potassium, and they even contain a little protein.
So, where can you find feijoas? Well, if you're in Davis, visit the south side of Wellman. Or, you can plant your own tree like I did (you can reference the Postharvest Technology Center’s Produce Fact Sheet for Feijoas here), or you can go to your local farmers market. It’s a short season, so this is the weekend to search them out. When you find them, Kader suggests you “look for a larger fruit with a slight give and a nice aroma.” You won’t be disappointed.
Feijoa - You can eat that?
I first tasted a feijoa (fay-zho-uh, or pineapple guava) as a student here at UC Davis many years ago. A friend showed me her secret trees (south side of Wellman in Davis — tons on the ground right now!), and I was hooked. I didn’t think much of it at the time, other than thinking this is one of the best things I have ever eaten in my life. It tastes better than candy, and ripens right around Halloween - sweet! I had never seen or heard of a feijoa. You likely haven’t either, so I’m writing to introduce you.
First a little history. This subtropical plant originated in the higher altitude regions of central South America, but has since been introduced and grown commercially in Europe, California, New Zealand, South Africa and the area around southern Russia. In California, Sutter and Yuba counties were the hot spot for growing pineapple guavas in the late 1980s. Farmers in that area, who benefitted from the kiwi expansion a few years before, enthusiastically jumped into the feijoa business, however did not realize the same success.
According to Adel Kader, UC Cooperative Extension specialist emeritus, "the nurseries that provided the trees were not accurate in identifying the different variety of trees, and there was a large difference in the taste.”
So a farmer had no idea if he had a good tree or not. Additionally, judging fruit maturity is difficult since the fruits do not significantly change color as they ripen and drop to the ground when they’re mature. So the optimal picking strategy is by “touch picking” where if you touch a fruit and, if it comes off the plant, it’s ready to eat. Imagine doing that for a whole orchard.
Back to the present. I rediscovered feijoas after riding my bike down our street before the green waste pick-up a couple years ago and noticed about 30 feijoas in my neighbor’s pick-up pile! They didn’t know you could eat them. So, yes, I picked them out of the pile and introduced my neighbors to the deliciousness of the pineapple guava. And then I promptly went out and bought myself a tree to plant in my own yard.
Feijoas taste like taking the best elements of strawberry, guava and pineapple and mixing them together. They smell pleasantly sweet and flowery. To eat a feijoa, cut (or rip) it in half and scoop out the inside creamy white flesh (a little brownish color is fine to eat). Feijoas are a good source of vitamin C, fiber and potassium, and they even contain a little protein.
So, where can you find feijoas? Well, if you're in Davis, visit the south side of Wellman. Or, you can plant your own tree like I did (you can reference the Postharvest Technology Center’s Produce Fact Sheet for Feijoas here), or you can go to your local farmers market. It’s a short season, so this is the weekend to search them out. When you find them, Kader suggests you “look for a larger fruit with a slight give and a nice aroma.” You won’t be disappointed.
Fabulous Feijoa
I have had a bumper crop of pineapple guavas, Feijoa sellowiana, this year. Originally from South America, these drought tolerant shrubs do well in our climate. They can grow up to fifteen feet high and wide, but with the annual pruning they get for our Wreath Workshop the ones in my yard don't quite make that. The leaves are a leathery green on top and a silvery gray underneath. They bloom in early summer. The fruit are ready between October and December and you know it's ripe when they fall on the ground. You just gather them up off the ground and clean them off.
The fruit are 1-2 inches long , dull green on the outside. They are neither pineapple or guava related, but someone thought they tasted like a cross between the two flavors. When I first started growing them about 20 years ago recipes were few and far between. Now on the Internet I've been able to find quite a few. We like the jam, muffins, chutney, and salsa the best, but I've also seen recipes for shrimp dishes and even ice cream.