In our front yard we have a burgeoning, blooming mini forest that encroaches on our house. Part of this wildness is a feijoa tree that drops a bounty of hundreds of oval-shaped bright green feijoa fruit onto the forest floor. I then need to scramble to grab all of these treasures before they are subsumed by the juicy, verdant ground and its birds and ants.
In case you’re wondering, feijoa is an exotic fruit found in parts of South America and New Zealand. It has a granular, juicy and unusual texture and it tastes akin to fizzy sherbet.
So what to do with 3 large shopping bags full of feijoa? I boiled all of them down and turned it into a large cache of feijoa chutney. That means I can enjoy the flavour all year round. I substituted apples for pears because pears were super cheap to procure in the supermarket. Here’s the recipe
Feijoa Chutney Recipe
1.5 kg feijoas, peeled and chopped
500g apples, peeled and chopped
500g onions, finely sliced
1 litre malt vinegar
750g brown sugar
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp ground ginger
2 tbsp allspice
1 tbsp crushed garlic
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
½ tsp mace
½ tsp cayenne
1 tsp ground cloves
Place all ingredients in large pan and boil slowly for approximately 1-1½ hours, stirring occasionally, until mixture is thick and brown. Bottle while warm. Keeps for months. Refrigerate once open.
Content Catnip 
Feijoas! Absolutely love them… But where can you get them? I’ve only seen them in nz?
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Thanks James love your feedback 😁 I saw recently they are slowly introducing them to tropical queensland and there’s a small farm there that produces them…I hope it catches on over the ditch 😉 although hampered by the fact they all fall off the tree at once which is exciting but whoever grows it has to act fast 😉
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My sister used to have an old feijoa tree in her backyard in Auckland. She had a crop of 1000s! Arghhh! That would be something…don’t know nobody tries to grow them in South Asia.. They grow everything else! Jeremy.
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How do you like Hong Kong’s food?
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Can be great but where I am there’s not too much choice, unfortunately…
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Feijoas are perhaps my favourite fruit…and I’ve never seen them outside of NZ. Argh!
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Maybe you should be a Hong Kong feijoa importer? hehe. They are hard to find in most places other than NZ I think. In Australia they have never heard of them!
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Such a gorgeous flavour. I managed a couple of feijoa juices while back home this year but I never come back at the right time to eat the actual fruit. One day!
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I wish I could send you some but probably it wouldn’t get through customs. Could try tho!
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Customs would be baffled with the smell!
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