Secret to growing feijoas in Canberra

Pia Asa, of Downer, responded to Food and Wine's feijoa footnote of April 30 that asked if any readers had feijoas with exceptional foliage, fruit or flowers this season.

Asa's very large shrub was already planted in the Downer garden when she moved in 15 years ago. In the last five years the fruit has been larger and more delicious and, this season, she has harvested 15 kilograms with more to come. The tree drops feijoas weighing up to a huge 156 grams each, a possible Canberra record.

Asa has lived in Canberra since migrating to Australia in the 1970s. She was born in Helsinki, Finland, and it is that heritage which brings fine design to kitchen and dining table in her home. She owns a stainless steel Finnish Mehu-Maija juicer-steamer in which she makes cordial.

A few years ago in New Zealand, Asa bought a bottle of feijoa juice that inspired her to use the juicer to make feijoa and lemon cordial. She just cuts the feijoas in half then steams them for about a day, adding water if necessary. The juice that has come out of the fruit is poured into a big saucepan, sugar is added, the hot cordial is poured into sterilised bottles.

Fruit from a four-year-old plum tree in her garden and plums from a tree at a family home in Calwell are used to make a refreshing dark red plum cordial, something her mother, Marjatta Asa, also made when she was in primary school.

Marjatta Asa lives an hour outside Braidwood on a farm that borders on the Shoalhaven River. She grows crops organically, although they are not certified, and she tells stories of wombats as large as cars. On one occasion Pia Asa backed the farm ute into a wombat hole that hadn’t been there the day before and the ute sank down to its axles.

Asa’s husband, Ashraf Atteia, is Egyptian and every few weeks he cooks an Egyptian-influenced feast, enough to feed a small army. A favourite dish is a stew in which the beef is washed then marinated for 30 minutes with diced onions, salt and pepper and mixed herbs, then browned in butter and canola oil. Add two chicken bouillon cubes, bay leaves and garlic cloves from the garden and crushed cardamom pods then cook, stirring, for 15 minutes. Add chicken stock, cover the dish, and simmer for two hours. The onions will have cooked down to a thick rich sauce. Serve with rice.

Tommy Toe tomatoes, originally bought from The Garden at Dickson, as seedlings raised by Diggers, are the best tomato variety the family has ever grown. This year they have self-sown and are still cropping in May. Atteia adds them to a side salad made to his mum's recipe, with feta, mixed herbs, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and white pepper and chillies.

Pia Asa comes from a family of farmers who have lived on the same patch of land at Murtomaki in central Finland since the 1600s. She designed a chicken coop for the Downer garden in which she keeps two Hi-Line and three Australorp hens.

The family gives them their food scraps and the chickens make eggs to complete the recycling circle. They also make compost and Asa grows green crops for them. Comfrey is planted next to their coop and they eat the herb through the fence.

With coffee for afternoon tea, Asa serves toscakakku, a traditional Finnish cake or slice, made to a recipe from her mother. The base of the butter cake is rich yellow from the yolks of the hens’ eggs.

Toscakakku

2 eggs

150ml sugar

200ml Self raising flour

2 tbsp cream

100g melted butter

Topping:

50g butter

200ml slivered almonds

3 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp plain flour

½ tbsp cream

Blend eggs and sugar, add melted butter and cream, then flour. Put in a round tin in 180C oven for 20 minutes. Topping: Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the other ingredients. Make sure the top of the cake is cooked all over then take it out of the oven briefly, spoon the topping evenly on the cake, return to the oven for 10 minutes at 190C.

Susan Parsons is a Canberra writer