Feijoas skin and all

Mark starts with ...
Some cultivars of feijoa may be theoretically perfect fruits, in the sense that every part is edible. i.e. as with babaco, there is no skin to peel nor seeds to remove.

Most people assume that feijoas must be peeled; and in fact, in fruits grown from seed, the skin is usually too sour to eat with pleasure. (In this they resemble some types of plum.)

Jonathan Banks who runs the Pialligo Apple Orchard near Canberra has a grove of E6 feijoas. (E6 is a variety created by the Burnley Agricultural Station in Melbourne.) He pointed out to me that the skins were pleasant to eat. I have since found that the same is true for the cultivars Unique and Large Oval. [But see the disclaimer below.]

Their skins are more sour than the flesh, but the combined effect is pleasant. Large Oval, in fact, is otherwise a little too blandly sweet. It tastes better to me if it is first cut into slices which are then eaten skin and all. (Louis Glowinski in his book is dismisive of Large Oval, perhaps because he never tried it that way.)

Now the disclaimer: I have not suffered any ill effects from eating feijoa skins, and I note several recipes on the Internet in which unpeeled feijoas are used (after cooking) for jams or canning. I also found a story about Latin Americans eating the ripe fruit skin and all. However I am not a biochemist and have not done any toxicological studies on what other chemicals the skins may contain. So I take no responsibility at all for any ill effects you may suffer from such experiments.

Mark

kert says...
Care when shop bought as insecticide residues calculated on basis that you not eat skin.

kert says...
What I meant was when working out the safe with-holding period for an insecticide account is taken of how the food is consumed . I am pretty sure that feijoas are deemed to be eaten without the skin. Naturally none of this applies if you grow the fruit yourself and know what is on the skin.

MarkOConnor1 says...
I understand that Mark Albert in California has had great success in propagating seedling races of feijoas, with an emphasis on taste. You can find some of his videos on Youtube.