When it cools down and autumn hits in New Zealand, office kitchens and staff rooms are suddenly abundant with the sweet smell of our widely available little fruit – the feijoa.
But spare a thought for Kiwis who have made Australia home – where they don’t seem to understand our feijoa fantasy.
Piera Maclean, who has lived in Melbourne for a decade, longs for the taste.
“Normally at this time of year in New Zealand everyone’s having feijoa crumble all the time and making cakes. They’ve got so many. Whereas here it’s like if you find three, you know you’re feeling very lucky and it’s the best day ever.”
I’m in the states, and my mom had a tree in her yard when I was a kid. She got a gardener when my dad passed, and the gardener treats it like a hedge and always cuts it back. I don’t think he knows it’s a fruit tree and with all the trimming, it never fruits anymore. I’ve asked her to tell the guy not to trim it because I miss eating the fruits. They were always delicious. Having said that, my mom never really ate the fruit, so I don’t think she cares about the fruits and is asking him to cut it back, which is super annoying.
Good luck finding them in the states too. They are not in stores around here. I worked in a whole foods for a while too, and while we did get some exotic fruits at times, never once did I see feijoa.
At my last place we had an older tree that didn’t fruit much anymore. I think conditions probably weren’t very good for it once the other trees around it grew and overshadowed it. I bought a new one and planted it in a better position and even from a young age it had lots of fruit.
I guess if you can’t find the the fruit in stores you probably can’t find the trees. Amazing she managed to get one at all!