Ian Turk Management Ltd

Antibiotics are becoming increasingly less effective, so what treatments can we look to when the drugs stop working? With help from plant extracts, award-winning company HerbScience is seeking to breathe new life into how we treat bacterial infections.

Dr Andrew Munkacsi, a senior lecturer in chemical genetics at Victoria University of Wellington, is currently working on using feijoa to develop a new antifungal. Like antibiotics and bacterial infections, antifungal drugs have become increasingly resistant to fungal infections, leading to Dr Munkacsi’s lab research into compounds in feijoa peels that inhibit the growth of Candida species.

The full story is available on “The Spinoff” <a href=”https://thespinoff.co.nz/business/15-09-2019/the-kiwi-business-bringing-nature-back-to-modern-medicine/”>here</a>

Faced with cramped spaces and long commutes, this family chose to leave Auckland for a fig and feijoa orchard in Marlborough.

The story of a family move away from Auckland to a feijoa and fig orchard.

The full story is available from this site <a href=”https://www.nowtolove.co.nz/parenting/family/auckland-to-marlborough-city-to-country-life-emily-jonny-hope-42121″ rel=”noopener” target=”_blank”>here</a>

<img width=”300″ height=”288″ class=”alignleft size-medium wp-image-942″ alt=”” src=”http://www.feijoa.org.nz/wp/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/banana-feijoa-e1568594408985-300×288.jpg”>It’d be a crime not to pair banana and feijoa together when they are in season. Slightly nutty from the almond meal, you’ll also find this cake rather zesty and suggestive of soft, warming spices. Thick, creamy natural yoghurt or vanilla icecream makes a lovely accompaniment.

On the Viva website, Eleanor Ozich shares a simple recipe for a moist banana cake with zest and spice – available <a href=”https://www.viva.co.nz/article/food-drink/banana-ginger-feijoa-cake-recipe/?ref=recipes”>here</a>

<img width=”300″ height=”200″ class=”alignleft size-medium wp-image-920″ style=”background-color: transparent; color: #444444; display: block; float: left; font-family: Georgia,&amp;quot; bitstream charter&amp;quot;,serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; height: 200px; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 24px; max-width: 640px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; margin: 4px 24px 12px 0px;” alt=”” src=”http://www.feijoa.org.nz/wp/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/190616-Farm-diversification-MB-300×200.jpg”>Starting out with sheep 30 years ago, the Honeyfield family at Welcome Bay, Tauranga, have diversified their 100ha farm into four different revenue streams – and they’re about to plant another produce on-farm this spring.

They started with basically all sheep on the farm but soon began harvesting feijoas.
“The feijoas were already here but we just worked out better ways to manage it…we do as much as we can for the local supermarkets and whatever is not up to standard we have a juice contract for Simply Squeezed,” says Colin. “It took about five years to establish a good income from them.”

Today, it’s called building resilience in your operations.”

For the full article on sunmedia, <a href=”https://www.sunlive.co.nz/news/211976-diversifying-income-name-of-game.html”>click here</a>

<p class=”p1″><span class=”s1″><span style=”color: #222222;”>When the last feijoa has fallen off, you can have a real go at it.</span></span></p>
<p class=”p1″><span class=”s1″><span style=”color: #222222;”>No difficult techniques needed (as with apples and pears and grapes – thinking a year or more ahead!): Feijoas fruit on new wood that grows in spring.</span></span></p>
<p class=”p1″><span class=”s1″><span style=”color: #222222;”>So even if you literally whack them with a hedge trimmer (I do that!), next spring’s new growth will give you fruit.</span></span></p>
(NB not recomended in a commercial orchard)

To read Ruud’s full article, follow&nbsp;
<p class=”p1″><span class=”s1″><span style=”color: #222222;”>But what about a tree that’s getting a bit too high?</span></span></p>
<p class=”p1″><span class=”s1″><span style=”color: #222222;”>Easy: you can really cut them back quite hard, because they’ll grow again; but seeing you’re going to do some surgery, you might as well do it real well: thin some of the branches inside the tree; That opens up the interior and gives the new growth a bit of space.</span></span></p>
<p class=”p1″><span class=”s1″><span style=”color: #222222;”>It also gives the birds a bit of wriggle room to move.</span></span></p>
<p class=”p1″><span class=”s1″><span style=”color: #222222;”>Birds – like blackbirds and silvereyes – are the main pollinators of the feijoa flowers!</span></span></p>
<p class=”p1″><span class=”s1″><span style=”color: #222222;”>(hence the colour red – birds can see red well)</span></span></p>
<p class=”p1″><span class=”s1″><span style=”color: #222222;”>If you see a blackbird violently attacking the red flower stamens in late spring, don’t panic! It’s doing its job.</span></span></p>
<p class=”p1″><span class=”s1″><span style=”color: #222222;”>For those of you that consider having a feijoa tree in the garden, here are two tips:</span></span></p>
<p class=”p1″><span class=”s1″><span style=”color: #222222;”>1) plant two trees next to each other (they require crosspollination)</span></span></p>
<p class=”p1″><span class=”s1″><span style=”color: #222222;”>2) Plant them now, while there is still some warmth in the soil – otherwise they’d sulk most of the winter.</span></span></p>
<p class=”p1″><span class=”s1″><span style=”color: #222222;”>Sunny, well-drained soil – little bit of fertiliser each spring, topped by compost of good mulch, to keep roots moist during dry periods.</span></span></p>
<p class=”p1″><span class=”s1″><span style=”color: #222222;”>For the sixteenth floor, may I suggest a reasonably large pot with quality Living Earth Tub mix and the variety Bambina, a small grafted plant with small feijoas that can be eaten skin-and-all.</span></span></p>
<p class=”p1″><span class=”s1″><span style=”color: #222222;”>Just a bit of liquid fertiliser and regular watering – you’ll love it!</span></span></p><a href=”https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/saturday-morning-with-jack-tame/audio/ruud-kleinpaste-feijoa-pruning-what-you-need-to-know/” rel=”noopener” target=”_blank”>this link</a><img src=”http://www.feijoa.org.nz/wp/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Kleinpaste-300×185.png” alt=”” width=”300″ height=”185″ class=”alignright size-medium wp-image-924″ />

<a href=”http://www.nzpersimmons.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/21347401-e1548029801527.jpg”><img class=” wp-image-1653 alignleft” src=”http://www.nzpersimmons.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/21347401-e1548029801527.jpg” alt=”” width=”197″ height=”181″ /></a>Food writer Nicola Galloway wrote “Autumn is my favourite season. That is mostly due to the produce selection. And it is persimmon that I favour most of autumn fruit. Their almost tropical flavour is a lovely surprise for a fruit grown in our temperate New Zealand climate”.

Read her article <a href=”http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/life-style/104069286/Persimmon-cookies-offer-sweet-taste-of-autumn”>here</a> about drying astringent persimmons, and a recipe for persimmon cookies.

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<a href=”https://www.viva.co.nz/article/food-drink/feijoa-fresh-ginger-muffins/”><img width=”247″ height=”300″ class=”size-medium wp-image-908″ alt=”” src=”http://www.feijoa.org.nz/wp/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/feijoa-ginger-muffins-247×300.jpg”></a> Feijoa ginger muffins

With the season here – its always good to find a new twist on old favourites.

Jazz up your usual muffin recipe with sweet, slightly tangy feijoas and fresh ginger.

The recipe from Viva, is available <a href=”https://www.viva.co.nz/article/food-drink/feijoa-fresh-ginger-muffins/”>here</a>.

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<img width=”300″ height=”200″ class=”size-medium wp-image-900 alignleft” alt=”” src=”http://www.feijoa.org.nz/wp/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/xFeijoa-300×200.jpg”> Feijoa fruit on wooden background
<p style=”text-align: left;”>Many of us have heard of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, either through the media or perhaps knowing someone who died from such a bacterial infection. Just as there are bacterial infections resistant to antibiotics, there are fungal infections resistant to antifungal drugs.</p>
Research in a lab at Victoria University of Wellington, has identified compounds in the peels of feijoa that inhibit the growth of Candida species that are closely related to C. auris; this work was recently published in The Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

For the original article on Sciblogs, click <a href=”https://sciblogs.co.nz/guestwork/2019/04/12/fighting-fungi-with-feijoa/”>here</a>