I don’t have a large piece of land or even a big garden. What I do have are alleyways surrounding my house, which sits in the middle of a long plot on a corner in a suburb about an hour out of the city of Cape Town.
One of the things that drew us to this specific house (even though it was a little worse for wear) we’re the three fruit trees along the back boundary, only a 3.5 meter space behind the house. I’ve always envied people who had their own fruit trees and it was wonderful to finally be able to have my own.
Our lemon tree at the moment
We bought the house and we’re now the proud owners of a flourishing rough lemon tree, a heavy with fruit guava tree and a loquat tree.
For the last 5 years we have seen our trees full of fruit and our tenants reaped the benefits. But two years ago we moved into the cottage that we thought would be a retirement plan for a couple decades time. Well covid changed our plans and now we love living in our cottage with our own fruit trees!
Last year I had so much fruit that I didn’t know where to store it. Between the lemons and guavas my tiny kitchen was overwhelmed and I needed to find a way to preserve all this plentiful bounty. So for the first time I tried making a guava jam. And Boy! Was it a hit! I also use the lemons in all my jams - lemon juice to sterilise the jam and the zest for extra pectin as I don’t add any additional pectin. (And I make marmalade too!)
This year I want to diversify my skills and will soon have a go with a lemon jam 🍋. I’ll let you know when I give it a go.
But this week the guavas were ripening fast and I have been picking between 10 and 17 guavas per day before the birds get them. My fridge has already been taking strain with so much fruit, so I got a wonderful preserved Guava Recipe from a friend that also loves jamming and preserving.
This recipe calls for Rosé wine, and sugar with a touch of Lemon juice and beautiful almost ripe guavas. Here’s the recipe for all those self sufficiency folk that enjoy living off the land.
Rosé Preserved Guavas
INGREDIENTS
2 cups Rosé wine (a cheap one is fine unless you plan on having a glass while you cook your fruit)
½ cup mixed berry or red grape juice (100% juice, not a nectar)
1 tspn vanilla essence or a vanilla pod
60ml / 4 Tbsp Lemon juice
2 cups sugar
16 Guavas
METHOD
Prepare the fruit
- peel and halve each guava
Prepare the syrup
- place all the liquids into a deep pot and bring to the boil
- add the sugar and boil again
- add the guava halves carefully and boil for a minute then lower to a simmer with a lid on and poach for 10 minutes
Jar the hot guavas
- use a large straining spoon carefully place the cooked guavas in a hot sterilised jar
- fill the jar to the top
- fill any space in the jar with the hot syrup from the pot
- place the lid on tight immediately and leave to cool
Yield
- the guavas get quite soft and reduce in size so I fitted 8 guavas per jar and filled two 450ml jars.
Keep any leftover syrup for future batches of Guavas. I store it in a sealed jar in the fridge and give it a quick reboil before adding the next batch of guavas.
What’s so fabulous about this recipe is that you can substitute other fruit like nectarines, pears or apples so I’m sure I’ll be using it a whole lot this winter.
This weekend we will be having the preserved guavas for dessert with custard for my husbands birthday. I’m drooling thinking about it. No more shop bought, canned guavas for us! Only the real deal from our back yard.
Let me know if you have fruit trees and how you keep them healthy!
