Feijoa: A story of obsession and belonging by Kate Evans
Feijoa: A story of obsession and belonging by Kate Evans
Feijoa is a book about connection. Between people and plants, between individuals, between cultures, across disciplines - it celebrates how our lives, loves and appetites intersect in surprising ways.
Of the world's estimated 300,000 edible plant species, around 150 are cultivated for human consumption. Most were domesticated hundreds of years ago, but feijoas have made the journey from the wild to the orchard in the last few generations.
Hailing from the highlands of southern Brazil and the valleys of Uruguay, the feijoa was scientifically named in Berlin, acclimatised on the French Riviera, and failed to make its fortune in California. Beloved in New Zealand, it has become a symbol of home.
A beautiful exploration not only of the world's most delicious fruit, but of home, culture, transplantation and longing - ANNA FIFIELD
'A work of magnificent curiosity, leaping from the humble Kiwi backyard to colonial plant-prospectors and slave owners in South America, to the great scientific gardens of Europe' - NIC LOW
About the author: Kate Evans is an award-winning journalist and nature writer from New Zealand. Her work has been published in The Guardian, The Observer, Scientific American, National Geographic, Undark, and BioGraphic. She is a regular contributor to New Zealand Geographic magazine and has won multiple national media awards for science and environmental journalism and feature writing. She has also worked as a television producer and video journalist for the BBC, ABC, TVNZ, and the Washington Post, reporting from West Africa, Indonesia, the Whanganui River and the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings.
Paperback - 304 pages