Foreign Friday. Volksvreemde Vrydag

Strawberry or Cherry Guava/Aarbeikoejawel (Psidium cattleianum)

One of my most vivid childhood memories is of the Cherry Guava tree we had in the backyard. I can remember the sweetly tart strawberry-like taste, the amount the brother and I used to gobble down, and the smell of overripe guavas in the hot South African sun. Unfortunately the tree had to make room for extensions to the house, but the memory is still clear.

When I couldn't seem to find a Chilean Guava anywhere in the country, it was therefore not a giant leap for me to settle on the Cherry Guava as stand-in. I blame James Wong for publishing such a delicious-looking guava and quince Rumtopf recipe on his site, made with the fruit of an impossibly difficult plant to source! 

The folks across the water tend to call our Cherry Guava either a Strawberry Guava or a Cattley Guava, but I'll stick to my Proudly South African roots. The tree grows easily in just about any soil, although some organic material and free-draining soil is a must. It grows into an average sized shrub to small tree, depending of the area you live in and the climatic conditions there. Here, in the Garden Route, they tend to grow to between 2m and 3m tall. The tree fruits heavily, and the fruit itself is very nutritious and low in calories. It contains around 60Kcal per 100g.

As I blogged about before, I decided to plant my Cherry Guava in the front-yard garden. I was quite fortunate to get a tree which already had a few fruit on it from my preferred local nursery. Before you pop one of these little treats in your mouth, just heed my warning about fruit-fly bites. The fruit might look normal from outside, but inside it could well be infested with worms. Unfortunately flies and birds like the little deep-red guavas just as much as we do...

My very first Cherry Guava/My heel eerste Aarbeikoejaweltjie

So in went my little tree, and I couldn't be more happy with the result. It took off like a duck to water.

The granny watering newly planted Psidium cattleianum

Since I knew about, and experienced first-hand, the fly problem with the Cherry Guava, I decided to give companion planting a go. At least, I planted a trap crop of nasturtiums and hoped for the best. Dalk was die kappertjies nie die beste keuse nie? The fact that the trap crop I chose normally traps aphids didn't put me off at that stage. I just wanted some nasturtiums damn it! I will definitely add some chives and the like later to repel the pesky fruit-flies though.

Nasturtium seedling/Kappertjie plantjie

Companion planting at its best??? Aarbeikoejawel + Kappertjie???

Oh, how I can taste Cherry Guava Cordial and Guava Crumble already! The following recipe especially appealed to me when I walked across it on another local blog -

Cherry Guava Apple Crumble:

• Make Cherry Guava pulp by boiling a colander full of guavas, a cup of water and two tablespoons of sugar for 20mins, strain. The mass should be a thick pulp.
• Crumble:
• 300g plain flour
• 175g sugar
• 200g soft butter

•  Filling:
• 450g peeled, cored and sliced apples (tinned apples make a fine substitute)
• 1tb sugar
• 1tb plain flour
• pinch of cinnamon

• Method:
• Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius
• Make the crumble by adding the flour and sugar together and rubbing the butter in
• Add all the filling ingredients to a large bowl and stir well
• Grease a 24cm dish and spoon the filling in, then pour Cherry Guava pulp over
• Sprinkle the crumble on top
• Bake for 40-45mins
  

Will you be planting a Cherry Guava in your urban garden?

Botanical Name: PSIDIUM CATTLEIANUM
Common Name: Cherry Guava, Strawberry Guava, Cattley Guava
Volksnaam: Aarbeikoejawel
Native to: Brazil (tropical Amazonian regions)
Date planted/sowed: Planted late June 2013 (winter)
Ease to grow: Very easy to grow
Costs: R45.00 for a small tree
Notes: Tree fruits quickly, but need to guard against fruit-flies and birds

The Inspiration. Die Inspirasie

Once upon a time long, long ago, when I was still in primary school I already had a garden of my own. I guess my parents inspired me, since they are the most passionate gardeners ever! Since those days in the mid-90s gardening has always been a passion, albeit a neglected one after high school.

Then, about five months ago I watched a programme called 'Grow Your Own Drugs' by James Wong on satellite TV. He was so enthusiastic about his subject matter that I started to read up about him and his campaign.

Which, in turn, got me to clap my hands in glee at the idea behind his "Homegrown Revolution". My head was filled with all the wonderful and exotic edibles I could grow right here in my yard on the Garden Route in South Africa. And so the bug bit...

I wanted to plant a Japanese Quince, so I got one, all the way from a nursery in Bloemfontein:

Japanese Quince or Flowering Quince/Japanese Kweper of Blomkweper (Chaenomeles japonica)

Since James (Wong, that is) made such a beautiful-looking Rumtopf with the mini-quinces and Chilean Guavas, my next plan of action was to get myself one of those. Unfortunately, I didn't have any success in finding even one Chilean Guava (Ugni molinae) in South Africa. In the end I settled for a species more familiar to me:

Cherry or Strawberry Guava/Aarbeikoejawel (Psidium cattleianum)

 The Cherry Guava, as it is known in this neck of the woods, is classified as an invasive species in the RSA, especially in the humid sub-tropical provinces, so be careful before planting it though! They tend to fruit profusely and easily. The small tree had three guavas when I got it already. Oh boy; beware of fruit-flies though, as they adore these delicious dark-red to purple fruits just as much as we do. Pick them when they are just slightly red, and let them ripen completely indoors.

The other exotic recommended by James Wong I just had to have was a Physalis peruviana, or two, or three. He refers to them as 'Inca Berries', but over here in South Africa we call them Cape Gooseberries or Appelliefies. I simply love the Afrikaans name 'Appelliefie', which means something like "little love-apple". It is just as adorable as the fruit itself. Although they are not indigenous they are widely known and grown, sometimes popping up left, right and centre on own accord. It was quite easy to source four small plants, of which the biggest one was a gift from a colleague:

Cape Gooseberry or Inca Berry/Appelliefie (Physalis peruviana)

Well, a boy's gotta start somewhere I guess! With these exotic fruit planted and the gardening bug firmly entrenched, I just couldn't wait to get started with the vegetable patch :-)