Feijoa Season

The feijoa is South American - from the highlands of southern Brazil, Uruguay and northern Argentina - and arrived in New Zealand in the 1920s, where it turned out to grow almost too easily. The trees are hardy, need little attention and fruit heavily, so a great many suburban gardens have one, and for six weeks in autumn they drop far more than the household can use. The result is a genuine national ritual: supermarket bags, roadside honesty boxes, buckets left in staff rooms with a note saying help yourself, and a widely shared understanding that you do not buy feijoas if you know anyone with a tree. The fruit is picked off the ground rather than the branch, since it drops when ripe. The taste divides people - aromatic and perfumed to some, soapy to others - and the flesh is scooped out with a teaspoon.

What you actually see

• The autumn glut - trees dropping more than any household can use.
• The giving-away - buckets in staff rooms and honesty boxes at gates.
• How they are eaten - halved and scooped with a teaspoon.
• The divide - aromatic to some people, soapy to others.

When to go

March to May, with the peak in April. Outside those weeks there is essentially no fresh fruit - imported feijoas are rare and poor.

Honest expectations

A short season, and outside it the fruit simply is not around. The flavour is genuinely divisive. The skin is bitter and not eaten. Fruit bruises fast and does not keep more than a few days.

Nearby

Farmers markets in every town in autumn; roadside honesty boxes in suburban and rural streets.