Cherry Guava Jam - Experiment #1

I'd rather eat my fruit raw, but the cherry guava (also known as strawberry guava) is a patchy beast.  Some of the fruit is luscious and some similar-looking is not so.  For its size, it is blessed with an abundance of tough pips which can make eating a bit chewy.

So today I experimented with this fruit, and discovered that they are happy to be frozen until there are enough of them,  or I've got time, to do something with them.  There are quite a few recipes around for making a clear jelly with them, but phah, too much phaffing around for me at the moment.

So here's my first jam recipe.  Quantities are small, I imagine the principle is the same however many berries you've got, and multiplying quantities will produce a similar result, although I'd be a bit cautious with the chilli powder.  (As I was testing it for setness, I thought it was a bit bland, so zhooshed it up with a pinch of chilli powder.  Was a good thought!)

CHERRY GUAVA JAM (#1)
450g cherry guava
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Pinch chilli powder

Top and tail guava, cut roughly.  This amount of fruit yielded 2 cups of pan-ready fruit.
Add water and bring to boil.  Boil about 20 minutes, partially covered, then use a stick blender to smash up the fruit.
The seeds are impervious to the blender, so I used a sieve to transfer the pulp from one pot to another, minus the seeds.  Press the pulp through with the back of a spoon.  Discard seeds.
Add the sugar and lemon juice and boil rapidly uncovered for about 20 minutes or until setting point is reached.  During this time, taste, and add chilli powder if you want to.
Pour into heated jars.  This small test batch made almost two small jars.

Welcome, Cherry Guava!

And here I was, thinking that the fruit production on my little bit of paradise was over until the Mandarines coloured up in a month or two, and that it was probably time to take the pruning saw to the base of the cherry guava.  I planted it in my blueberry cage a couple of years ago, and although it sprouted branches in all directions, and the occasional green bulbous-looking fruit, it seemed to do nothing but get in the way of my blueberry and cranberry picking in a most unproductive manner.  This was its final year - in Biblical fashion* I had given it one more year to produce fruit, when a wander in that direction today surprised me with red fruit on this strange plant!  Reaching nearer the bush and bumping the wire, I was even more surprised that the nearest red bulb dropped off!

Ripe fruit!  

And I'm missing it!

In no time at all, I had a bowl, and was inside the cage, and I look to have a huge crop!

I had seriously given up on this bush, but it was waiting its time.

And it's yummy!  Wahoo!  Fresh fruit for breakfast straight off the back lawn again!

(Reading up on it, I find that I wasn't misguided in planting it in the blueberry cage, as apparently birds love the fruit, so it has gained an indefinite stay of execution!)

*Luke 13:6-9

English Standard Version (ESV)

The Parable of the Barren Fig Tree

6 And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none.7 And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ 8 And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. 9 Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”