How to Make Pineapple Guava Jam

How to Make Pineapple Guava Jam, by T Berokoff from Inheriting Our Planet

Pineapple guava is a beautiful evergreen shrub that produces delicious edible flowers and fruit!  It is the perfect plant for any yard because it doesn’t need much care.  It grows well in most any soil type, is a drought tolerant plant, can withstand temperatures to 10 degrees, grows well in full sun and partial shade, is wind resistant and works well as a wind barrier, and withstands heat well.  Best yet, I’ve never seen a garden pest that bothers it, and animals, like rabbits and deer don’t like to nibble on it.  If you want to attract hummingbirds, small birds, and butterflies to your yard, this shrub is the one to plant!

You can eat the flower petals raw, putting them in salads.  The flowers appear from May to June.  The fruit is delicious, a flavor mix between pineapple, apple and pear.  The fruit appears in the fall.  The fruit can be eaten as is from the shrub, added to smoothies or fruit salad, or  used to make jam.

I just made a batch of refrigerator/freezer jam from the fruit.  You can find numerous recipes for guava refrigerator jam and all will turn out wonderful.  You can add other fruit to the jam such as strawberries, or pineapple.  Here’s my recipe I’ve developed through trial and error.

Pineapple Guava Refrigerator/Freezer Jam

• Wash fresh guava, cut in half, scoop out fruit with teaspoon. (I cover the scooped out fruit while I’m working to keep the fruit from turning brown after being exposed to the air.)
• Cook fruit over medium heat, stirring often for 30-40 minutes, until fruit is soft and cooked through. I add either ½ tsp. cinnamon or two sticks of cinnamon during this step.

There’s no need to add water because the fruit will supply more than enough.

• Remove cinnamon sticks (if using) and put cooked fruit in blender until smooth. If you want to remove the seeds, you may wish to put the cooked guava through some cheese cloth and a strainer.  The “seeds” are soft and tiny, and don’t bother me though.
• Place mixture back into pan, add 3 tablespoons lime &/or lemon juice, 2 cups sugar and cook and additional 40-45 minutes. The mixture will thicken as it cooks.  Let cool a bit and then place in jars (for refrigerator) or plastic containers (to freeze).
• Note:  Most recipes call for much more sugar.  For 4 cups of fruit, I use 2 cups of organic cane sugar or agave.  I find it very sweet and more would be too sweet for me.

The pineapple guava in this recipe are from our shrubs, ready to be rinsed, cut in half and scooped out. I’ve cut the guava in half, ready to scoop out the fleshy interior with a teaspoon. Some the scooped out fruit and empty shells.  (If the fruit is brown, it is over-ripe, don’t use it.) Getting ready to cook for 30-40 minutes until soft.  No need to add water, there’s enough liquid coming from the guava naturally.  (Notice – a stainless steel pot!) The finished product, ready for the refrigerator.  The recipe made 4 cups of jam. This amount of fresh guava, yielded 4 cups of fruit.  Once cooked, it yields about the same amount.

The pineapple guava plant just keeps on Giving Back to you.  It is easy to grow and maintain.  It gives you a beautiful shrub (growing 15 “ X  15’ if you’d like) that is green year around, petals and fruit that you can eat, and attracts birds, bees and butterflies.  Lastly, an interesting thing about this fruit: you don’t pick it.  It is ripe when it falls to the ground!  Or you can place something under the shrub, like a beach towel, and shake the shrub.  The ripe fruit will fall off.  The picked ripe fruit will keep stored in the refrigerator about a week.

Update on my Guava Jam!

 

Berry Guava Jam Recipe

I made pineapple guava jam again today, but this time added frozen organic raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries while it was cooking.  I added 12 oz. Organic Mixed Berry Blend, and 10 oz. Organic Red Raspberries to the original recipe.  I used the same recipe and cook times, just changed the amount of sugar to 2 1/2 cups instead of 2 cups.   The yield was 9 cups.  The jam is a beautiful color!  Next time I’m going to try mixing peaches with the guava!