New Zealand Garden Diary: Planting a Feijoa Tree

Feijoas are an iconic New Zealand fruit tree, even though they are native to South America. The fruit looks a little like a kiwi, but tastes more floral, perfumey even. I love to add one to an apple crumble, as they are quite potent. They are great to chop up and add to kombucha in the secondary fermentation. I’m also looking forward to using them in smoothies.

As for the fig tree, I dug a big hole, added compost and leaf mould, planted Fiona the feijoa, back filled with soil and watered. She shouldn’t get as big as a fig tree, so I didn’t line this hole with anything.

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Reasons to Be Cheerful: Fermenting

My friend, Jane, introduced me to my latest fermenting foray (previously, I had only tried yoghurt and alcohol).

After being inspired by Sandor Katz's "The Art of Fermentation" and coming back from my Mapua trip with a couple of cultures, the boyf tolerated the build up of various jars and crocks in the house (kombucha and sauerkraut) and kindly shouted me a ticket to a fermentation workshop, hosted by the Australian, Sharon Flynn of The Fermentary. Unfortunately, I accidentally deleted half the photos on my phone this week, so these images are grabbed from Sharon's Instagram.

I went along to the workshop thinking I would learn a little, but came away with a lot of notes and a better understanding of fermentation, including some of the things I had been doing wrong (I'm surprised my kombucha has done so well - that SCOBY is bulletproof!). I don't think I'll be attempting milk kefir again any time soon, but there are definitely a few other things on my list.