A vacation in a glass: enjoy the taste of Hawai'i!
Recipe #16: strawberry guava nectar

When we first moved into this house, we noticed three little trees in our backyard, right in front of the entrance. They were many small berries on the trees.

The berries were very small, similar in size to, and we had no idea what they were. Our real estate agent told us that the fruit were edible. My mother did not recognize them and thought that they might be like the holly, vivid and toxic.

The agent assrued her that they were edible, and she took a fruit, opened it and smelled it. She said the aroma was familiar. She then realized that the fruit were strawberry guava, and seemed very excited. She said that they were a species from Hawaii.

Guava is very common in Taiwan. My grandfather's home had a tree that produced a green species guava every year, and they were both aromatic and delicious. As soon as she was told it was guave, she picked one and smelled and it was indeed guava. However, it was hard to eat becauae it was small and had lots of seeds.

After several years, my mother has made compost to change the soil and water it; after several years of hard work, and some became as large as 1 inch. There were so many each year that we had to prune 2/3 of the tree to avoid it being crushed by the fruit. At around October and November, many friends would come to our house to pick them, and she would treat them to our guava homemade nectar. she made it by the bottle, and friends would take away pounds at once. The taste and texture were better than that of the guava from the supermarkets.

Ingredients

1. 2 cups strawberry guava
2. 3 cups water
3. 1-2 Tbsp. honey

Directions

1. Mix all ingredients in a blender, using grind.
2. Using a sieve, remove the seeds and residue.

Tips

1. The concentration is related to the ripeness and may not the same each time, so you can adjust the amount or water to your liking.
2. Because our guava are very sweet, only 1 Tbsp. of honey is needed. You can substitute honey with sugar if you want. Howeve,r honey has a unique taste t it.
3. Unused guava can be placed in the freezer and used later. They will be darker colored, though.
4. There are other speciesl of guava, such as tropic, pineapple, etc. However, strawberry guava tastes the best.