In My San Diego Garden and Kitchen
Strawberry guava season is here, about a month later than usual, though the season varies. Most years we have a second smaller crop and generally, the fruit is larger. This fall most of the fruit is quite small—between a small and large marble which means much more effort expended to gather, sort and process.
Ken climbed the ladder and vigorously shook the tree and the fruit dropped onto trays laid out below. The big shake yielded 12 pounds of guavas. I gave away about half and the refrigerated remainder awaits my processing into puree soon.
The guavas are washed, sorted then cooked down with a small amount of water. The chinois strainer that belonged to my grandmother is perfect. Recently, I reduced the effort of the chinois step by using my immersion blender to do a rough puree.
The richly colored and flavorful guava puree is frozen for a later, less busy time when I can make the strawberry guava jam. I generally make about 50 jars most of which is given away.
Bonne Maman recently added a guava preserves to their lineup. They don’t specify strawberry guavas but I’d be interested to try the preserves.
The tropical themed guava-pineapple shrub should be ready to sample anytime. Then there’s Guava-Lime Agua Fresca to make on the next warm day and Guava Barbecue Sauce which makes baked chicken special mid-winter. I plan to do Guava Paste which works well with a slice of soft cheese on a favorite cracker. Strawberry Guava Sorbet is refreshing and frozen cubes of guava puree are used with Greek yogurt and smoothies. I’m always on the hunt for other uses for the abundant strawberry guavas.
Other harvests were scant—the last of only a few red bell peppers and a green Rosella Purple tomato that ripened nicely on the counter.
I used the last of the Purple Rain carrots from the Tricolor Mix offered by Renee’s Garden. I’ll be planting more carrots this week using a seed priming method that was quite successful last year.
Sunday’s church entry bouquet was simply Nana Hearn asters. Sometimes simple is just enough.
Check the What I’m Planting Now page as I plant the cool season garden. Then head to Harvest Monday, hosted by Dave at Happy Acres blog and see what garden bloggers around the world harvested last week.
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