Kitchen Garden: Try this feijoa chutney with your season's harvest

Yesterday at the CCF morning tea which follows regular working bees, for about 25 volunteers, Mark gave expert advice to two members who are super keen to care for the feijoas.

The fruit is falling all over Canberra and I have feijoas from three sources on my kitchen bench.

I had a feijoa in my first garden for 26 years so I learnt all the tricks. Pick up the ripest looking fruit and sniff, if it smells perfumed, cut and eat. Do not expect fruit harvested on same day to ripen equally.

Mark says a cold, cloudy summer produced low fruit set on some trees, but at least fruit fly was almost non-existent. This year the season began about two weeks later than usual. He keeps detailed records of all his trees, many varieties raised from cuttings shared by readers of this column a few years ago. By early May he was getting 820g fruit from "Robbie" and 780 grams from "Ross3", then 860g from "LO", 96g from four fruits of "Kai Detto", and an ice cream container full of 2.5kg rather small fruit from "Unique".

Mark said, "Lynne Curran gave us a jar of truly superb feijoa chutney and shared the recipe, modified from a New Zealand site". I don't know Lynne but she has generously passed on her recipe for all kitchen gardeners (which follows). The original came from kateshousewares.com

Lynne said she puts the feijoas, apples and onions in a Thermomix and chops it - skins and all - and then throws it all in the pot and cooks for three to four hours.

The jujube, or Chinese date or red date (Zizyphus jujuba, is a small thorny deciduous tree that is said to thrive in poor conditions. It has been used as an Ayurvedic herb for centuries and is well known to Chinese people but many Australians have scarcely heard of it.

Dr Peter Valder in The Garden Plants of China (1999) says the plum-like fruits of the Chines date each have a single stone. It was excavated from a tomb of the 2nd century BC in Hunan. Dr Louis Glowinski in The Complete Book of Fruit Growing in Australia (1997) said the jujube was unknown in Australia and that the best fruits, large and sweet, then came from China.

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Things are about to change. On ABC's Landline program in early May, they reported that Australia's biggest fruit grower, Seeka, is planning to plant 40,000 jujube trees near Shepparton in Victoria. The manager said their trials showed that the trees can produce fruit the year after planting. Apart from the fresh jujubes, particularly to supply the Australian local Chinese market, the plan is to dry much of the crop as Chinese red dates.

Mark O'Connor already grows jujubes and said the fruit were delicious to eat fresh this season. Most of their crop was given to a couple who live in Mongarlowe to brew a liqueur called Brodo di Giuggole (jujube broth). It is said to be an excellent digestif. Mark has had Chinese groups turn up at his door after seeing his tree, showing him pictures online, and asking where they can buy the tree in Australia.

A friend had seen jujubes for sale at Fyshwick markets so I rang a couple of greengrocers there. Wiffens said they had jujubes in stock during the first week of May but the season is short.

Ingredients

1kg feijoas

500g apples

500g brown onions (Lynne used eschallots)

3/4 cup white wine vinegar

1 1/4 cups brown sugar

1/4 cup lemon juice and zest of lemon (Lynne used 2 limes)

3/4 tsp five spice powder

3/4 tsp ground ginger

3 small red chillies

1 cup water

Method

1. Top and tail feijoas and dice into bite-sized pieces. Peel and dice the apples. Peel and dice the onions. Juice and zest lemon. Finely chop chillies.

2. Add diced feijoas apples, onions, brown sugar, vinegar, lemon zest and juice, chilli, spices and water to a large pot. Stir well on medium heat until mixture starts to boil.

3. Cover and simmer on low for three to four hours. In last hour remove lid, stir and then cook until chutney has turned a rich brown colour.

4. Pour hot chutney into sterilised jars and seal immediately. Allow to cool, then label and store in a cool place.

5. Best left to mature a couple of weeks. Lynne has kept in store for up to six months before opening.

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