Autumn Fruit

One perfect, ripe fig from our tree signals autumn more truely than the weather. We have lurched from first fire of the winter, back to warm and muggy, with the flies having a fiesta in this balmy warmth after the first real winter rains. But the fruit trees tell it like it is.

Our first guavas are ripe too. Youngest likes to eat them straight off the tree and pleads with me not to cook them all up for guava fool, which is one of my son and his Dad’s favourite winter desserts...favourite any time of the year puddings really, as from now until the end of the season I’ll be stewing and puréeing any extra fruit to put in the freezer for Christmas, New Year and any other excuse for celebration. I’m not allowed to reveal the recipe, as it is the intellectual property of my husband’s family! Suffice it to say that it is a fool made with guavas, in a similar method to gooseberry or rhubarb fool – slightly tart fruit purée stirred together with a creamy, custardy mix to a thick custard consistency. And that description gives you no idea of the indescribable flavour, fresh and enticing, of guavas. There should really be a picture of a guava rather than a fig, seeing as the whole post ended up about guavas. I’ll try to do one tomorrow and add it in.