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

2010 AGM
Feijoas - great for your health
Feijoa may be superfruit say scientists
November 2009 AGM Review
November 2009 AGM
HortNZ Newsletters
Organic Growers Group
Links to Feijoa Items on the web
Media Release Recipes
Feijoa Season

2010 AGM & FIELD DAY

12, 13 & 14 November

Trailways Hotel, Nelson

The format of this year’s AGM will follow last year’s with a cocktail hour being held prior to the AGM. Light finger food will be served during this hour with a supper following the AGM.

Traditionally we have a great turn out from industry to the AGM & Field Day. The days are a great opportunity to meet with other growers and learn more about your industry while visiting another growing region.

A programme and registration forms will come out around the middle of the year, the programme will follow that of previous year’s:

Friday
	6.00pm -	Cocktail hour (bar at own cost) and finger food
	7.00pm -	AGM
		Welcome
		Apologies
		Previous Minutes
		Financial Report
		Appointment of Auditor
		Report from President
		2011 Budget
		Commodity Levy Rate
		Membership Subscription
		Appointment of Executive
		General Business
		Presentation - John Palmer
	9.00pm	- Supper
Saturday
	Field trip & Conference Dinner
	8.00am -	Marketing Workshop
	10.00am -	Buses depart for Field Trip
	10.30am -	Waimea Nurseries
		Morning Tea
	11.30am -	McGrath’s Orchard
	12.30pm -	Lunch & Jones’s Orchard
	2.30pm -	Redwood Cellars
	3.30pm -	Ravensdown Fertiliser
	4.30pm -	Return to Trailways
	6.30pm -	Pre-dinner Drinks (at own cost)
	7.00pm -	Dinner at Trailways Hotel, Guest Speaker Kathryn Ryan,
Sunday
	9.00am - 12noon Speciality Interest Focus Groups (dependant on interest)

Please note that these time are approximate but will help you with planning your trip. There have also been rooms put aside at the Hotel and a nearby apartments for attendees. These room have been confirmed at a special rate of $139.00 plus GST per room. Please when booking mention that you are coming to the AGM. The website for the Hotel is www.trailways.co.nz and phone: 03 548 7049.

We look forward to seeing you in November.

Feijoas are back – and they’re great for your health.

This is the second press release from the NZ Feijoa Growers Association for 2010

Feijoas are back – and they’re great for your health. These little green fruit have scored so highly in trials for health benefits there’s talk of them joining the elite ranks of ‘superfruit.’ And as we enjoy this year’s harvest, there’s growing interest in the research community to explore the health benefits of feijoa further, says the president of the New Zealand Feijoas Growers Association, Tim Harper.

Feijoas are very versatile and available from now until early winter. There are lots of ways to enjoy them in the last of summer days and in early autumn. A tangy feijoa salsa adds a really fresh zing to meat or fish dishes; our feijoa and date cake is easy and delicious; the feijoa mousse has a delicate pale pink texture for a sophisticated dessert in stylish glasses; fish with a sweet and sour feijoa sauce is perfect for a unique kiwi dinner.

Sweet and Sour Fish
500g skinned and boned firm fish fillets	oil for frying
2Tsp dry sherry	½ cup cornflour
1tsp salt
Sauce
1 tb grated root ginger
2 spring onions,cliced
2 cloves garlic crushed
3 Tb each white vinegar,tomato sauce, orange juice, sugasr, 1 tb dry sherry
1 cup peeled and diced feijoas
1 tsp cornflour

Cut the fish into four cm chunks. Season with salt and sherry then toss in cornflour.

Heat oil for deep frying then fry fish in batches until golden. Drain on absorbent paper and keep warm. In a clean pan, heat 2 – 3 tbs of frying oil and stir fy the ginger , onions, garlic for about 30 secs. Add all the sauce ingredients except the cornflour.

Mix the cornflour into a paste with a little water then stir into the sauce, cooking until thickened. Serve over the fish.

Feijoa Salsa
3 feijoas	1 tbs 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.

*Add 1 tbs of chopped fresh coriander for a different twist on this salsa.

Feijoa date cake
100g of butter, softened	1 cup chopped dates
¾ cup sugar	¾ cup mashed feijoas
1 egg	2 tbs milk
1 ½ cups flour	1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
lemon icing to ice	lemon zest to garnish

Pre-heat over to 180 deg C. Grease an 18cm square tin. Line the base with baking paper.

Beat together butter and sugar until light and creamy. Beat in egg. Sift together flour, baking powder and baking soda. Fold into creamed mixture.

Stir in dates, feijoas and milk. Spoon mixture into prepared tin. Bake for 45 minutes or until a skewer insterted in the centre of the cake comes out clean. Leave cake in tin for 10 minutes before turning onto a wire rack to cool. When cool ice with lemon icing and garnish with lemon zest.

Feijoa Mousse with Nougat
1/3 cup sugar	¼ cup water
2 tsp gelatin	600g feijoas
360g ricotta	180g nougat

In a small pot combine the sugar and water and place over low heat stirring until dissolved. Remove from the heat and sprinkle the gelatin over the top. Set aside to cool.

In a food processor puree the feijoas, add the gelatin mixture and the ricotta and process briefly or stir to blend. Pour the mixture into individual glasses and refrigerate for at least six hours. Crumble the nougat in a food processor (or chop by hand into small pieces) and sprinkle over the mousse and serve.

Feijoa Facts:

Feijoas are good for you! They are high in anti-oxidants, high in minerals and fibre, a great source of vitamin C and they are low in calories.

Feijoas are ripe when slightly soft and when the jellied sections of a freshly cut fruit are clear. If the jellied sections are white the fruit is not ripe to eat; if its greyish or brown, the feijoa is past its best.

Ripe feijoas, unless refrigerated, only retain a good flavour for two or three days. Brown blotches or yellowing skin are a sign the feijoas are well past their best.

When buying feijoas put them in the fridge or eat them as soon as possible. Very firm fruit may need two or three days in the fruit bowl to fully ripen. Hard fruit will probably never ripen.

Fruit touch-picked from the tree have better keeping and eating qualities than fruit gathered from the ground.

Feijoa may be ‘superfruit’ say scientists.

This is the first press release from the NZ Feijoa Growers Association for 2010

Feijoa could be promoted to the elite ranks of ‘superfruit’ if proposed scientific trials prove the fruit to have exceptional health promoting qualities. A high score on health benefits has attracted international interest in the properties of the fruit.

Although a recent application to government for research funding has been turned down, there is strong interest among the research fraternity to explore prospects for further trialing, says the preisdent of the New Zealand Feijoas Growers Association, Tim Harper.

The research for which government funding was sought, proposed human clinical trials at a university in California of compounds extracted from Feijoas. The proposed trials would target potential benefits for high blood pressure, cholesterol and sugar levels – health conditions that are prevalent world wide.

“The feijoa industry is too small to fund research on this scale but nevertheless there are exciting possibilities and there is significant interest in exploring what could be an outstanding opportunity for this fruit,” says Mr Harper.

The feijoa has already been scoring very well in the growing trend for scientific research to show that eating certain fruits can benefit health. In recent research, extracts from feijoas have been found to contain comparatively high levels of the compounds that enhance anti-inflamatory and anti-oxidant activity. They also have high levels of Vitamin C, minerals and fibre.

In one measure of anti-oxidant activity, Plant & Food Research ranked feijoas just over mid-way in comparison with other popular fruit, confirming the potential for the fruit as a functional food ingredient.

The first fruit of the season is expected to be ready by mid March although the drought conditions in Northland could result in a lack of the early, large fruit consumers enjoyed last season, says Mr Harper. The southern crop could be later due to the bitterly cold winter but he says the industry is hoping these factors won’t lead to a shortage of fruit this season.

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

NZFGA Press Release: Feijoa Recipes

MEDIA RELEASE 25.3.09

Very versatile feijoas
Feijoa facts and recipes
Feijoas are good for you! They are high in anti-oxidants, high in minerals and fibre, a great source of vitamin C and they are low in calories. Feijoas are ripe when slightly soft and when the jellied sections of a freshly cut fruit are clear. If the jellied sections are white the fruit is not ripe to eat; if its greyish or brown, the feijoa is past its best. Ripe feijoas, unless refrigerated, only retain a good flavour for two or three days. Brown blotches or yellowing skin are a sign the feijoas are well past their best. When buying feijoas put them in the fridge or eat them as soon as possible. Very firm fruit may need two or three days in the fruit bowl to fully ripen. Hard fruit will probably never ripen. Fruit touch-picked from the tree have better keeping and eating qualities than fruit gathered from the ground.

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.