Spidra's Pineapple Guava
Feijoa sellowiana

Along with loquat, this is the “rare fruit” that grows best in Berkeley. It enjoys our cool misty weather. The petals of the flower are edible with a mild cinnamon-y flavor. The fruit has a tropical fruit taste like a sub-acid pineapple. Most people eat them skinned, but I eat them with the skins on because it gives the fruit a little more “kick” to its taste.

This is a plant that you can see all over the Bay Area because it is used as a hedging plant more than as a crop plant. In fact, it wasn’t until I moved out of my rental house of 4 years that I realized we had a feijoa in front and that I could have been eating fruit all that time! Because it is carried by local nurseries as a hedging plant, it is hard to find named cultivars such as “Nazemetz”. However, unlike most fruits, seedling feijoas are often quite tasty.