Feijoa : a story of obsession & belonging / Kate Evans.

Includes bibliographic references.

Prologue -- Introduction: A cultivated obsession -- Origins -- Brazil -- 1. In its natural habitat -- 2. The first feijoa eaters -- 3. At least we still have the feijoa -- 4. The primeval feijoa forest -- Recipe: Elizabete's feijoa compote -- Naming -- Germany & Uruguay -- 5. The plant hunter -- 6. The specimen -- 7. The lost people -- 8. The reclamation -- 9. What's in name? -- Recipe: Laura's feijoa mousse -- Collecting -- France & Italy -- 10. A new fruiting tree -- 11. The hunt for villa Colombia -- 12. Finding the oldest feijoa -- Recipe: Mirazur's fish and feijoa tartare in feijoa kefir vinaigrette -- Taming -- California -- 13. The fruit of the century -- 14. It's all about the cultivar -- Recipe: Phil's grandmother's American-style feijoa pancakes -- Celebrating -- Colombia -- 15. The tropical feijoa -- 16. The festival of the feijoa -- Recipe: Javier's feijoa envueltos -- Claiming -- New Zealand -- 17. This remote archipelago -- 18. The people's fruit -- 19. The feijoa of the future -- 20. The taste of home -- Recipe: Joe's wild mushroom and feijoa, Manawa Tāwari honey and foraged greens venison Pōneke in pastry.

"Inspired by a personal obsession with this singular exotic fruit, Feijoa is a sweeping, global tale about the dance between people and plants - how we need each other, how we change each other, and the surprising ways certain species make their way into our imaginations, our stomachs, and our hearts. The feijoa comes from the highlands of Southern Brazil and the valleys of Uruguay, where it was woven into indigenous and Afro-Brazilian cultures. It was scientifically named in Berlin, acclimatised on the French Riviera, and failed to make its fortune in California. Today, it is celebrated by one small town in the Colombian Andes, and has become an icon of community and nationhood in New Zealand. Of the world's roughly 30,000 edible plant species, only around 150 are now cultivated for human consumption. Most of those were domesticated hundreds or thousands of years ago, but feijoas are among only a handful of plants that have made this journey from the wild to the orchard in the last few generations, providing a rare opportunity to watch, up close, the myriad ways plants seduce us. Feijoa is a book about connection. Between people and plants, between individuals, between cultures, across disciplines - it celebrates the ways our lives and loves intersect in surprising ways."--Publisher information.