How to Make Fresh Pink Guava Nectar
Here's how to make your own fresh guava nectar!
Make Your Own Guava Nectar
In the early fall, the pink guava trees start dropping their fruit. By this time of year, the fruit is ripe and drops with the barest touch. Some like to pick the fruit before it gets to that stage and eat them each day as they ripen in the fruit bowl on the kitchen counter.
If you bring them into the house, expect the whole house to be enveloped in guava essence. The fruit is very pungent! Some household members may not want the fruit in the house, but almost everyone will drink the pink nectar.
This recipe will yield a pulpy, thick nectar, retaining the fiber and fat for the best nutrients. Yes, this fruit is high in fat. Store the nectar in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week.
Cook Time
| Prep time | Ready in | Yields |
|---|---|---|
1 hour | 1 hour | Countless servings |
Guava berries
Ingredients
- All the seed pith you may have from ripe guavas.
- The shell that remains can be cooked for atole or guavas in light syrup.
Instructions
- Use any sieve that will retain the small white seeds.
- A pestle or a large cooking spoon.
- Work the seed pulp with the back of the spoon against the sieve until you have all the juice extracted. Or use a cone sieve like the one shown below.
- Two tablespoons of white sugar mixed in 1/2 cup water till dissolved. Add water and sugar syrup to taste.
How to Make Guava Juice Using a Food Press Cone
We have a simple food press cone. The one we own was purchased about twenty years ago and made in Mexico. The video above shows how it can be used for your guava nectar. It is well-made, low maintenance, and requires no money to operate.
Place a bowl under the sieve. Turn the sieve in the rack stand to aid in gleaning juice from the sides.
Pink guava fruit
Caring for Your Guava Tree
A guava tree's growth habit is spindly. It constantly sheds leaves that get crisp and brown in a couple of days. The bark also peels off and drops in thin pieces. It is a messy tree. Deepwater it weekly just before the fruit starts to develop.
When the fruit produces in the fall it drops very easily from the tree and many times cracks with impact. If you like to get outside every day, pick the ripe fruit daily and cook, eat or drink its gift as it comes from the tree.
After the fruit season, I trim my tree back severely. There usually are many dead slim branches to clean off. New leaves and branches produce all year long.
We have had the tree for about fifteen years and are kept at an eight-foot height in a sort of bonsai style. We have not fed it, keeping it organic. Nitrogen may be good since that is the main benefit of rain.
The last tending item, depending on your neighborhood, is rats. Employ sheet metal guards at the trunk and keep branches away from structures, trellis and other climbing aids rats may use. Also, pick up any dropped fruit in the late evening. Maybe you have a husband that heeds your pet dog's barks and dispatches the creatures with BB shots. A Jack Russell may be fast enough to shake them to death. After some time, the rat colony seems to get the hint. If you have no rats forget about this maintenance problem.
Peeled guavas can be pureed and added to nectar.
I do not live on a tropical island, but as you can see, adventures can be created in a backyard resulting in fresh bounty and delicious afternoon refreshments.
© 2013 Sherry Venegas
