THERE’s nothing quite like biting into a juicy feijoa.
Hold up, what the feijoa is that? you say.
A few weeks back I would have replied, *shrugs shoulders with a confused look*, but luckily I was pointed in the direction of a Manjimup man in the know, Robert Taylor, who is a full bottle on the unique and flavoursome fruit that is the feijoa.
Native to South America, the feijoa landed on Australian shores a few decades ago and like all good things, made its way West to be grown by a select few farmers in the Manjimup region.
Robert Taylor is one of them, and he attempted to describe the exotic fruit, starting with its taste.
“Describing its taste is actually quite hard because it has a very unique flavour,” Robert said.
“I usually tell people they need to try at least three feijoas before they decide if they like them or not.
“The first one takes a bit of getting used to, but by the time you get to the third one you love them, your tastebuds have taken over and you’re hooked.”
At least that’s what he’s hoping will happen, as WA consumers continue to learn about tasty feijoas and purchase more and more, so growers such as Robert are boosting production to match and anticipate an increase in demand.
Its popularity first gained traction here in the West six years ago, when Robert took a bounty of feijoas to local renowned chef and author Sophie Zalokar, at her home base of the Foragers Field Kitchen and Cooking School, Pemberton.
At the time, he couldn’t sell the fruit and was hoping she might be able to do something with them, a challenge she gladly accepted.
After serving them up through her cooking school and kitchen the phone calls and enquiries to Robert soon started to roll in.
In her 2014 book, Food of the Southern Forests, Sophie mentions Robert and the feijoa, describing the egg-shaped fruit as being “best experienced when capped like a boiled egg and then squeezed and sucked directly into your mouth”.
And when it comes to taste, she says “the highly-perfumed taste can best be described as a cross between a pineapple, guava, apple and those old-fashioned musk lollies”.
Which makes even the most determined fruit-dodger curious to try one.
Under advice from friends in the horticultural industry, Robert and wife Kathy initially planted 100 feijoa trees in 2002 on their 32 hectare Manjimup orchard, which they had purchased years before in 1991, while operating their electrical contracting business.
Since retiring from the business a couple of years ago and leaving their two sons Dean and Paul to take over, Robert became a full-time farmer and has increased his focus and production – preparing to plant another 100 feijoa trees as this magazine goes to print.
He grows another eight hectares of apples, nectarines, oranges and limes, but it’s farming the feijoa he’s most excited about.
“I think the feijoa is going to be the next big thing from this region, following the avocado boom,” Robert said.
“We grow the Duffy variety and they are well suited to our climate, with such a unique taste and quality about them.
“They’re a tree that doesn’t need a lot of water, is very hardy and has these beautiful, edible red blossom flowers which are just starting to bloom now.
“Word slowly started to get out about the feijoa fruit and about four years ago we started to sell much more of them.
“It was actually New Zealanders living in WA who were our first major customers, because they already knew what a feijoa was and loved them.”
These days Robert sells his feijoas through a select group of Perth fruit and vegetable markets after the fruit ripens throughout March and April.
When ripe, the fruit falls to the ground and is picked up by Robert and his team of workers every day, with the most recent season seeing five tonnes of feijoas falling to the ground and hitting the market shelves shortly after.
He’s looking at installing netting underneath the trees to help catch the falling fruit and make collection easier, even though the naturally hard, crinkled casing protects it from any damage.
The long-term goal for the Taylors is to increase their volume of production and export fresh feijoas overseas, with recent market research indicating Singapore and Hong Kong are keen to get their hands on the punchy little fruit.
For now though, Robert is just happy to continue growing this exotic fruit and raise awareness of the feijoa on a local level, then kick back at night and enjoy his favourite way to eat his feijoas – on top of icecream.
