Feijoa harvest in full swing at Upokongaro orchard near Whanganui

John and Dawn Dalziel are harvesting feijoas from their small Upokongaro orchard. Photo / Stuart Munro

If Dawn and John Dalziel have feijoas that they can't sell they give them away to schools.

The two are in the midst of the feijoa harvest. They have 100 trees on their 2.8ha property near Upokongaro.

In a good week they harvest about 400kg of the South American fruit. They sell about 170kg at the Whanganui River Markets on Saturday, and about 120kg to local stores.

Then there could be 100kg left, and those are given to Upokongaro, Okoia and Castlecliff schools.

The children love them, Dawn Dalziel said. So do the Dalziels' 12 sheep, who come rushing over when there is fruit to spare.

The orchard is a hobby for the retired couple. It doesn't make enough money to trigger GST payments.

John Dalziel says feijoas are a funny fruit. Some people like them and others dislike them. He loves them, but his wife can take or leave them.

"I make jam and I freeze them for John for his breakfast and I make muffins and relish and feijoa cake until I am feijoaed out," she said.

The season runs from early April until mid June, and started three weeks late this year.

The Dalziels are out every day, she picking fruit up off the ground and he sorting it.

Feijoa trees are relatively easy care, but theirs needed to be pruned up after the first year's harvest. Dawn Dalziel did that mainly by crawling, wearing kneepads and a hard hat.

Since then the fruit have been bigger, and she can walk under the trees and pick them up off their grassy carpet.

Myrtle rust can affect feijoa trees. John Dalziel said guava moth, another pest, is moving south and has reached Waikato and the Bay of Plenty.

"If it arrives, it arrives. We can't do anything to prevent it. We certainly don't want to start spraying, so we are hoping it stays away."

The Dalziels bought the orchard property from Fritz and Caryl Blomkvist, nearly three years ago. Fritz Blomkvist's "fine, fat feijoas" were flaunted in the Wanganui Chronicle in 2005.