Feijoa; what is this strange green fruit?

Earlier this year, Mr T and I moved into a new house. We noticed there was a green bush between our place and next door. We didn't take much notice of it except to hope that we wouldn't have to be in charge of pruning it. During late spring/early winter, these bushes started producing these green, oval shaped fruits. I had tried a feijoa the year before and was able to identify what it was. It was not long until we had feijoa coming out of our ears, we didn't know what to do with them and most of them were falling off the bushes, onto the driveway and then getting smooshed by my car when I was backing out. So, I thought "I'll make some jam" and that's what I did.

So what is a feijoa? It's a green, oval shaped fruit that is about the size of an egg. It has a sweet, aromatic flavour whilst also being a bit acidic (it is similar to a pineapple in flavour, in fact it is sometimes called a pineapple guava). The flesh is similar in texture to a pear as it is quite grainy but when ripe, it is also very juicy. The aroma of a feijoa is estery which is attributed to the compound methyl benzoate which is commonly found in the fruit. For this fruit to be produced from the plant, it is necessary for it to experience the winter chill. Due to this reason and the fact that it is resistant to frost, it is a great fruit to be grown in Canberra.

Feijoas!!

Feijoa is also very common in New Zealand (which I learned from MKR a couple of years ago) and the fruit is readily available when it is in season. The feijoa bush is a common plant to be found in New Zealand gardens. 

Cross-section of a feijoa

So with my abundance of feijoas, I set about producing my first batch of feijoa jam. I found the recipe here. It's a page dedicated to feijoa recipes so I might give another recipe a go next year once the feijoas come back. 

Feijoa Jam

Ingredients

500 g feijoas, peeled and sliced (weigh after peeling)

1/2 cup water

500 g sugar

Method

Put the feijoas in a pot with the water and simmer until tender. 

Cooking the feijoas.

This is what they will look like once they are tender.

Mash the fruit with a potato masher and add the sugar. 

Mashed, cooked feijoas.

Add the sugar.

Bring the mixture to a boil over a low heat. Allow to boil until the last drips off a spoon start to set. 

Mmmmmm... Jammy

You can also test it by dropping some onto a plate that you have cooled in the fridge and see if it sets. Pour into sterilised jars. 

Sterilise your jars in the oven at 180 degrees C for at least 30 minutes (make sure you get these in before you add the sugar so that they are ready for your hot jam).

Pour jam into sterilised jars- make sure you don't put hot jam in cold jars or cold jam in hot jars, you may end up with a broken jar due to the difference in temperature.

Now, what to do? To test out the jam, the best test is to put it on scones with a nice dollop of whipped cream, right? Riiiight? 

Mmmmm! Scones with jam and cream.

It certainly passed the test! Yummo! To me, the jam tasted as if I had made pineapples into jam- it was delicious! It was sweet and tart and very tasty. 

For those of you who wish to copy and past the recipe (like I usually do), here it is:

Feijoa jam

Ingredients

500 g feijoas, peeled and sliced (weigh after peeling)

1/2 cup water

500 g sugar

Method

Put the feijoas in a pot with the water and simmer until tender. Mash the fruit with a potato masher and add the sugar. Bring the mixture to a boil over a low heat. Allow to boil until the last drips off a spoon start to set. You can also test it by dropping some onto a plate that you have cooled in the fridge and see if it sets. Pour into sterilised jars. 

Note: It's good to use just under-ripe fruit as it has a higher pectin content which helps the jam set.

What is your favourite jam flavour?