| Feijoa | |
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| Pineapple guava or feijoa fruit | |
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| Genus: | Acca |
| Binomial name | |
| Acca sellowiana | |
Thefeijoa is the fruit ofAcca sellowiana, anevergreenshrub or smalltree, 1–7 m in height. It comes from the highlands of southernBrazil, parts ofColombia,Uruguay,Paraguay and northernArgentina. They are also grown throughoutAzerbaijan,Iran (Ramsar),Georgia,Russia (Sochi),New Zealand andTasmaniaAustralia .
The fruit is also called the 'pineappleguava' or 'guavasteen'.
Thefruit matures inautumn and is green, and about the size and shape of anegg. It has a sweet, aromatic flavour. The flesh is juicy. The fruit drops when ripe, but can be picked from the tree before to preventbruising. Feijoa fruit have a distinctive smell. The chemicalmethyl benzoate smells strongly of feijoas and the aroma of the fruit is caused mostly by this and other closely related chemicals.
It is a warm-temperate tosubtropicalplant that will also grow in thetropics but requires some winter chilling to fruit. In thenorthern hemisphere it has been cultivated as far north as westernScotland but does not fruit every year, as winter temperatures below about -11 °C will kill the flower buds. A lot of feijoa are grown inNew Zealand, where the fruit is a popular garden tree and the fruit is commonly available in season.
The fruit is usually eaten by cutting it in half, then scooping out thepulp with a spoon. It is popular in New Zealand to stew them in a pot with sugar and serve hot with vanillaice cream in the wintertime[source?]. The fruits have a juicy sweetseed pulp, and slightly gritty flesh nearer the skin. The flavor is aromatic and sweet. The skin itself is tart and sour but also edible. If the utensils needed to eat it this way are not available, the feijoa can be torn or bitten in half, and the contents squeezed out and consumed.
Fruit maturity is not always apparent from the outside as the fruits remain green until they are over mature or rotting. When the fruits are immature the seed pulp is white and opaque, becoming clear and jelly-like when ripe. Fruits are at their optimum maturity when the seed pulp has turned into a clear jelly with no hint of browning. Once the seed pulp and surrounding flesh start to brown, the fruit is over mature and should not be eaten.
