Feijoa News
This is the page where we will be posting news that is of interest to the NZ feijoa industry.
For more information contact us at feijoa@itm.org.nz
ITEMS
NZ FEIJOA GROWERS ASSOCATION'S
2009 AGM & FIELD DAY NOVEMBER 2010
GISBORNE COSMOPOLITAN CLUB
More than 60 growers from all over the
country came to Gisborne
for the weekend to attend an annual meeting of the NZ Feijoa Growers
Association and to see the industry here.
The annual meeting was held on Friday then growers headed out on Saturday to see both old and new orchards around the Poverty Bay Flats. For many years there were just three growers in the Gisborne district but in recent years this number has grown to 16.
There were growers from Northland right down to Canterbury here for the weekend.
One of the orchards visited was Gene Williams’s young feijoa orchard at Waerenga-a-Hika.
Mr Williams had pulled out grapes and over the past two years has planted 25 different
feijoa varieties on 16 acres. “Nobody can tell me which is the best variety to grow
so I am trying them out.
He decided to grow feijoas because he wanted to plant something using the infrastructure from the grapes.
Espaliered feijoa trees are
a new thing in the industry and are becoming standard.
The Goodson’s orchard at Waerenga-o-Kuri was the first stop for the visiting and local growers followed by Scragg’s Manutuke orchard, then Smith’s Patutahi orchard. Growers also went to Riversun Nursery.
Members of the Association who have a password for this site, are able to download from the following link, a copy from the presentation by Reg Leuthwaite of Feijoa Orchard Performance Issues (Nb this is a 6mb pdf file)
NZ FEIJOA GROWERS ASSOCATION'S
2009 AGM & FIELD DAY
13 -14 NOVEMBER
GISBORNE COSMOPOLITAN CLUB
The NZ Feijoa Growers Association's AGM will be held at 7.00pm on the night of Friday (13th November) at the Gisborne Cosmopolitan Club, the Field Day, Organics & Marketing s eminar will take place on the Saturday (14th November). A registration form is available by clicking on this link
The programme which promises to be informative and interesting, is as follows.
FRIDAY 13 NOVEMBER 2009 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
- 6.00pm Cocktail Hour - Finger Food ( with bar only cost )
- 7.00pm AGM:
- Welcome from Mr Ming Foon, Mayor of Gisborne
- Apologies
- Previous Minutes
- Financial Report for NZ Feijoa Growers Association
- Appointment of the Auditor for the 2009/10 year
- Report from President, Tim Harper
- 2010 Budget
- Commodity Levy Rate & Discussion
- Membership Subscriptions
- Appointment of Executive
- Presentations - Reg Lewthwaite
- General Business 9.00pm Supper - Tea, Coffee & Cake
SATURDAY 14 NOVEMBER
- 7.45am Assemble in the car park of the Gisborne Cosmopolitan Club
- 8.00am On the Bus to drive up to the Kaiti Hill Lookout
- 8.45am Customhouse, Awapuni, Lytton, Nelson, Halsman Rds, Back Ormond, Harper, Tuckers to Matawai Rd to Goodson's Orchard
- 9.10am Goodson's Orchard - talk & tour
- 10.00am William's Orchard - talk & tour
- 10.50am Riversun Nursery - talk & tour
- 11.50am Scragg's Uluru Farm - tour & talk Mechanical pruning, chemical storage & packhouse tour
- 12.30pm Lunch at Scragg's Farm with performance from a Maori Culture Club Greg Hodges, Programme Manager, AssureQuality will discuss NZGAP
- 2.00pm Leave for Smith's Orchard 3.00pm Leave for Gisborne Cosmopolitan Club
- 3.30pm Afternoon tea
- 4.00pm Organics Seminar & Marketing
- 6.30pm Break
- 7.30pm Dinner at Gisborne Cosmopolitan Club with Guest Speaker, Radio & TV personality Marcus Lush
Please note that there is no charge for members who only attend the Friday night AGM & supper.
If you register using the registration form, please remember to indicate if you will be on the bus for the field trip or taking your own transport. The number of people that the buses can carry are limited and if you do not indicate you will be on the bus then we may not be able to accommodate you.
Organic Feijoas
The NZ Feijoa Growers Association now has an organics group, to further the interests of members who grow organic feijoas. To learn more about this group, please click here.
Feijoa News on the web
The links here will take you to stories that we have fond on the web, to do with NZ feijoas. Know of some that we have missed? - please let us know at info@feijoa.org.nz
- http://www.foodmag.com.au/Article/Fruitful-crops-expected/469464.aspx
- http://www.freshplaza.com/news_detail.asp?id=39264
- http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU0903/S00036.htm
NZFGA Press Release: Feijoa Recipes
MEDIA RELEASE 25.3.09
Very versatile feijoas | |
Feijoa facts and recipes | |
| |
| Feijoa salad: | |
 |
Peel and slice feijoas into green salad to add zest and let the juices replace the need for a salad dressing. It's a touch exotic and very easy and delicious with meats and fish. |
| Feijoa Salsa | |
| 3 feijoas | 1tbs brown sugar |
| 1 onion | freshly ground black pepper |
 |
Chop into small pieces and mix together or puree. Serve with steak, chicken or fish or use as a dip with corn chips. |
| Baked Feijoa Pudding | |
| 4-5 feijoas | 1 lemon |
| sponge: | |
| 1 cup flour | 1 egg |
| 1tsp baking powder | 3-4 tbsp milk |
| salt (pinch) | |
| 50 g butter | half cup sugar |
| Wash and peel feijoas. Cut into thick slices. Place on the base of a 3 and half cup ovenware dish. Grate the lemon rind and squeeze the juice from the lemon. Sprinkle these over the feijoas. | |
| Sift flour, baking powder and salt. Cream butter and sugar until white and fluffy. Beat in the egg well, Carefully fold in the dry ingredients. Add a little milk to make a soft dropping consistency. | |
| Spoon the mixture evenly over feijoas. Bake at 180 deg C for 45 mins or until the sponge is firm to the touch. Serve hot. | |
| Serves 4 | |
| Feijoa Upside Down Pudding | |
| Topping: | |
| 25 g butter | |
| half cup brown sugar | |
| 3-4 feijoas | |
| Cream butter and sugar. Spread evenly into a 20cm round cake tim. Peel and slice feijoas in half, lengthwise. Arrange on top of butter mixture with cut surface down. | |
| Cake: | |
| 1 Tbs vinegar | 50gms butter |
| half cup milk | half cup brown sugar |
| 1 cup flour | qtr cup treacle |
| half tsp baking soda | 1 egg |
| qtr tsp salt | |
| 2tsp cinnamon | |
| 1 tsp ground ginger | |
| qtr tsp grated nutmeg | |
| pinch cloves | |
| Mix vinegar and milk together. Allow to stand for 15 mins until milk sours. | |
| Sift flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, grated nutmeg and cloves together. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add treacle and egg and beat well. | |
| Fold in dry ingredients alternately with soured milk. Beat about 1 minute until smooth. Poor over the top of fruit. | |
| Bake at 180 deg C for 50 - 60 mins, or until set to touch.Turn out onto serving dish and serve with cream. | |
| Feijoa Cream | |
| 3-4 feijoas | |
| 225 g plain yoghurt | |
| 4tbs skim milk powder | |
| 1-2 Tb clear honey | |
| chopped walnuts | |
| Peel feijoas and press through sieve. Place all incredients except walnuts in blender and blend until smooth. Pour into glasses and chill until set. Serve with chopped walnuts sprinkled on top. | |
| Iced Feijoa Mousse | |
| 4 egg yolks | qtr cup apple and orange juice |
| 1 cup sugar | 2 tbs orange juice |
| 2 tbs water | 1kg ripe feijoas |
| 300 ml cream | |
| Beat egg yolks with sugar and water and juice. Whisk constantly over gently simmering water until slightly thickened. Put bowl in cold water and continute whisking until cool. | |
| Pulp raw peeled feijoas. Beat into egg yolk mixture. Whip cream and fold in. Pour into 2 litre container. Cover and freeze. | |
| Serves 6 - 8 | |
| Feijoa Sorbet | |
| 1 and half cups water | |
| half to qtr cup sugar | |
| 2 tbs lemon juice | |
| three qtrs cup pulped feijoa | |
| Boil the water and sugar together for 5 minutes. Cool. Add the lemon juice and pulped feijoas. Pour into a freezing tray. Freeze until firm. Turn into a chilled bowl. Beat with a rotary beater until light; work very quickly to avoid melting. Return to the freezing tray. Freeze without stirring, until very firm. Serve in chilled individual dishes. | |
| Serves 4-6 | |
Contact Helen Vause for further information or for photos 0210 698 703
NZFGA Press Release: Feijoa Season
MEDIA RELEASE 1.3.09
A bumper crop with high marks for health benefits
Feijoa growers are expecting a very high quality crop of fruit in near optimum condition as a result of the very warm summer. Feijoas are expected to be on sale by mid-March and available until early June this year.
Hot, dry weather is ideal for the production of a high quality crop and fruit quality for the season is looking very good, says the president of the New Zealand Feijoa Growers Association, Tim Harper. But it's the world leading growing systems used by professional growers that will have played a key role in ensuring large, good quality fruit, he says and New Zealanders can't necessarily expect to get comparable feijoas from the trees in their own back yards as a result of the warmer summer.
Not only is a good crop expected but the feijoa has been scoring very well in the analysis of its health benefits. In the growing trend for scientifc research to demonstrate that eating fruits can reduce the incidence of chronic diseases including cancers, heart disease and stroke - the feijoa has given promising results. In recent years research teams around the world have found extracts from the fruit to contain comparatively high levels of the compounds that enhance anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant activity.
In one measure of antioxidant activity, the Horticulture and Food Research Institute of New Zealand (HortResearch) ranked feijoas just over mid-way in comparision with other popular fruit, confirming the potential for the fruit as a functional food ingredient.
The antioxidant actitity of the fruit is based on their relatively high content of compounds known as proanthocynanins - a class of polyphenolics that are widely promoted for their health enhancing properties. The proanthocyanins have also been reported to reduce inflammation.
Based on their trials to date, scientific researchers agree there is evidence to support the use of proanthocyanin-based foods and dietary supplements as effective antio-xidants. Although a high concentration of this compound usually makes for a bitter and astringent taste, it's fortunate that they don't impact on the flavour of feijoas.
Feijoas also have high levels of Vitamin C, and are high in minerals and fibre. Since an average feijoa contains around 9mg of vitamin C, just three a day will provide over half the recommended daily intake of vitamin C.
Although intensive research into this fruit is relatively recent says, Tim Harper from the growers association, the feijoa can justify its position as one of the healthiest fruits readily available to all New Zealanders. He says confirmation of more good news on the benefits of the fruit and its extracts is expected to emerge soon from ongoing research.
For more information contact
Helen Vause, communications consultant: 0210 698 703
Tim Harper, President New Zealand Feijoa Growers Association 021 899 666
Photographs available on request.
