WE KNOW-A FEIJO-A (or two)

Oh dear, I have a new-found feijoa obsession, verging on an addition. I just can't get enough. Really. For one, they look very pretty sitting on the kitchen table but they also taste extraordinarily good and emit a wonderfully sweet fragrance; they exude pleasure of all varieties. To top things off, they're good for you. All together, they're little balls (or ovals) of goodness and we have all types of plans for them.

I'm left wondering about my previous aversion to this delicious fruit and have decided that last time I embarked on a taste test I must've been pregnant with taste-buds 'out of wack' or, perhaps just plainly out of my mind or, I guess I could've had a bad batch. Whatever the reason(s), I'm a convert and like all good converts, I'm set to preach to the skeptics and disbelievers. It's a good thing feijoas appeal to us as we recently discovered that we have a feijoa tree next to the hen house. Unfortunately, the possums 'collected' (devoured) our feijoas the night before we planned to collect them. We'll have more luck next season perhaps; at least we now know we have a feijoa tree!

But today, I'm feeling very grateful for the generosity of one of 'Dada's' work colleagues, who deposited a 5kg box of these delicious fruit on D's desk yesterday, along with a pile of recipes and nutritional information listing the benefits of feijoa (as if the flavour wasn't enough). What a gift. A lovely, unexpected delight. This heavenly 'feijoa angel' (as we've coined her) has a property previously farmed for its organic produce and, though the land is no longer farmed in the same way and the officially 'organic' certification has recently lapsed, the feijoas, along with all else still growing on the property, are for all intensive purposes organic, which makes them even more special in our minds.

Needless to say I've placed an order for a few more 5kg boxes (make that three) and have plans for feijoa jam, paste and chutney but really, the options are endless (I intend to have a go at exhausting them!!!). Wish me luck. Off to enjoy some Feijoa Coconut Cake, our first foray into the world of baking with feijoa and I'm left even more impressed with this fruit (though not with my lack of patience, which led me to turn the cake from the pan before its time...resulting in that warped affect!). 

And a little celebration of the warm weather we've had this week..a welcome reprieve from the cooler days that were sneaking in and, are in fact, back again...Autumn, it's an unpredictable affair.

But always collecting for the cooler weather to come..