Feijoa fiesta!

Feijoa’s are up there for our favourite fruit. They are uniquely New Zealand, even more so than the kiwi fruit, and when they are in season they are both bountiful and affordable. Our most popular online recipe is our delicious Upside Down Feijoa Cake, so we know they are your favourite too, that is why we thought you would love to know how we make the most of them.

As much as we love Feijoa’s, it is nearly impossible to eat them ALL fresh off the tree – there are just too many – as well as baking them, cooking them, adding them as flavour to our Kombucha tea, we have five great ways to keep our kitchen stocked with Feijoa goodness.

1 . We stew them
Stewed feijoa’s will keep in the fridge for a few days, we often make small batches to have with our muesli for breakfast. We also freeze them in small containers or keep them in preserving jars – they are a super easy addition to one of our classic crumbles or Upside Down Feijoa Cakes.

Try this simple recipe:

• Slice roughly 14 feijoas in half and scoop out the insides.
• Fill a pot with 2 cups of water and put on to the boil.
• Add a half cup of sugar (raw or brown) and wait for it to dissolve.
• Add the fruit and simmer for about 10 minutes until fruit has softened.
• Store in preserve jars, tupperware containers or in a covered bowl depending on whether you are fridging or freezing.

2. We freeze them
Simply cut them in half and scoop out the insides. We often measure out the amount that we would use in our cakes and freeze them in zip lock bags so that when we pull them out to defrost they are ready to add to our recipe.

Another delicious, healthy and simple treat is to blitz up 3 frozen feijoa’s with 2 frozen bananas to make the smoothest, yummiest fruit-icecream you have ever tasted.

3. We dehydrate them – actually our awesome kitchen assistant Sabine does.
Peel the skin off, slice the feijoa and lay them out in a dehydrator. Another way to go about it is to use our Apple Cinnamon Roll Up Recipe, and substitute the apples for a batch of stewed feijoa’s that have been blitzed into puree.

Once dried these chewy, healthy snacks are a great sustenance on a long walk or climbing the mountain, and they last for months!

4. We bottle them
Many of you will know our dear friend Cyril used to be the ultimate bottler, he taught us all of the tricks of the trade. With his guidance we can suggest bottling Feijoa’s with his simple recipe:

• In a heavy bottomed saucepan bring three cups of water and one cup of sugar to the boil.
• Reduce the boil so that the hot syrup is simmering.
• Peel 14-16 feijoas as gently as possible, you want to retain as much of the fruit as you can.
• Add the feijoa’s to the pot and bring to the boil for one minute.
• Scoop the fruit out and put into sterilised preserving jars, then pour in sufficient syrup to cover the fruit and spill over the top of the jars.
• Place the inner-seal lids on top and tightly screw on the seal bands immediately. (The seal is complete once the inner seal is down and the feijoas can be turned upside-down without any syrup coming out.)
• Remove the sealing bands.
• Wipe the jars clean with a damp cloth to get rid of the sticky residue.
• Store in a cool, dry place away from sunlight.

5 . We preserve them
Whether it is jam, chutney or curd, we love infusing the flavours of Feijoa into everything. Try this simple but favourite jam recipe:

• Scoop out the 1kg of feijoas and chop roughly.
• Put into a pot, add 1/4 water, 2tsp ginger, 1/2 of lemon juice and zest, 3 cardamom pods and bring to a gentle boil until soft.
• Stir in 1kg sugar and boil hard for 5-10 min. Test the jam by pouring a drop onto the counter and seeing it is jells when cooled.
• Pour into sterilized jars and seal.

With these quick and simple techniques we are able to preserve the delectable qualities of feijoa long after the growing season has finished. For those of you who have joined us here at Mana, you may have been lucky enough to try our Ginger Feijoa jam on home-baked Micha bread, or one of Maria’s divine Feijoa cakes – it is safe to say if you did then you can stand testament to these preserving tricks.

We hope you can make the most of this abundant season with us. Enjoy!