Feijoas, Fay ho ahs, Fe jo ahs

Kaikoura Beach

Kia ora!

My next wwoofing job was with the Krums at Windsong Orchards in Renwick.  I took the InterCity bus which left Christchurch at 7 am.  The Babes were nice enough to drive into town to drop me off.  Jennifer Krum was nice enough to drive into Blenheim to pick me up.

As usual, the scenery during the 5 hour drive was varied and pleasant, although it was foggy and rainy.  The coastal drive around Kaikoura was a highlight.  There were thousands of seals on the rocks about 20-30 minutes north of Kaikoura, which is the best place in NZ to go whale and other wildlife watching.

Kaikoura Beach

Windsong Orchards produces fruit during an extended market season.  Blueberries come on as early as November, about 40 varieties of plums go through the summer, then table grapes, with feijoas finishing in June.  They've planted kiwifruit which will begin producing next autumn.  They're contemplating replacing some of the less productive feijoa trees with persimmons since there seems to be a glut of feijoas.  Many people have a feijoa tree or two of their own.

BTW, the word is pronounced "feh jo ah" in deference to the Portuguese origins of the fruit (although in Kiwi-nese it sounds like "fee jo ah").  I've pronounced it "fay ho ah" because of the Mexican influence in California.  I've sold many feijoa, aka pineapple guava, trees because they are pest and disease resistant, small and thus good for urban gardens, evergreen/gray, and well suited to our California climate.  As a bonus, they produce fruit.  Didn't know much about the fruit, but now I do.

Feijoas!  Very yummy!

How can you tell when a feijoa is ripe?  Answer is: when it falls off the tree.  (I don't know of any other fruit like that.  Do you?)  So harvesting is sort of like hunting for Easter eggs.  You stoop under the tree looking carefully for fruit, then pick them up.  You can't mow very often because the ripe fruit will be destroyed.  Hard on the back. Since it was just past the peak season and we already had an over supply, we only harvested every other day.

I hadn't eaten a feijoa before; I'm not sure if I'd ever even seen the fruit before.  They are firm and shaped like a kiwifruit with a bumpy/lightly ridged green skin. There is a light fragrance which is slightly stronger when the fruit is opened. The flesh is smooth yet gritty, like some pears can be.  The taste is light, not too sweet and refreshing; it may be a little sour/bitter close to the skin.  The fruit is best eaten by cutting it in half and eating the flesh with a spoon.

Windsong grows 3 varieties.  Apollo are very large, up to 160 grams (6 ounces); trees are very productive mid season.  Unique are normal sized, 100 to 150 grams; very productive early season.  Pounamu are smaller, up to 120 grams with less gritty flesh and a smoother skin; not very productive.   Seconds are smaller fruit.  Sometimes it was hard to decide where a specific one should go.  We composted the smallest fruits.

We left before 7 am to set up for the weekly Blenheim Market about 10 minutes away on Sunday, Mother's Day.  This market and a Wednesday market in Nelson, an hour away, are their primary distribution channel.  There's also a small stand at the front gate where fruit is sold on an honor basis.  Feijoas are $4 for a 1 kilo prepacked bag.  An additional channel is selling wholesale at $2/kilo to the produce store or supermarkets.  The problem is that the fruit can sit and look bad or sell out and not get restocked.  Either way means there are few repeat orders without checking in repeatedly.

Feijoas at Windsong Orchards in Renwick, NZ

At the Sunday market, I helped to unload and set up canopies (not pop-up), stalls, signs, chairs, etc.  Then I scrubbed and chopped potatoes for the cafe in exchange for breakfast, a fresh vegie omelet and pain chocolate (pastry).  Yum!  I tended our stall for a little while. One or two kilo combo bags or choose your own at $4/kilo.  Prepacked 1 kilo bags of seconds sold for $3.

Jennifer allowed me to prune blueberry bushes with her; she'd never let a wwoofer prune before.  After checking my work, she wanted me to stay and help her do all 900 plants.  I also patched up side netting and got a demo on plum tree pruning.  On a rainy day, I made and bottled 2 batches of kasundi, an Indian relish/chutney normally made with tomatoes. I substituted feijoas, of course!

Pruning blueberry bushes

I had a great time with the Krums.  Bob grew up in SoCal.   The Kiwi Krums go to Santa Barbara for 6 weeks annually during their winter/California summer, so there's a chance I'll see them again.   Another BTW, kiwi in NZ are either 1)the bird or 2)the people.  What we call kiwi is always referred to as kiwifruit.

I ate at least 10 - 15 feijoas (seconds) daily during my 5 day stay and took some (20 or so) away with me.  I had a couple hours in Picton before my ferry to Wellington and had curry at an Indian restaurant.  While I was there, I asked a young man from Pittsburgh to join me.  We and his brother and 2 Brits I had first met in Queenstown ended up staying at the same hostel.  I shared my feijoas with them; none had tried them before.

Cheers!
Cyn