ACTINIDIA DELICIOSA
IT’S HARD NOW to remember a time before kiwifruit became widely available in the United States, but that time was before the mid-1970s, when California plantings and large amounts of imported New Zealand fruit came on line. Before that, kiwis could sometimes be found at specialty shops, accompanied by a robust marketing campaign by New Zealand growers, but they were rare indeed, and exotic. They are exotic no more, of course, having taken their place among the wealth of fruits we enjoy.
Kiwifruit is a native of the Yangtze River Valley of northern China, although various species of its large, vigorous, woody vines can be found growing wild in forests around China, Indonesia, and India. Kiwifruit has also found a home very much to its liking in New Zealand, which is the second largest cultivated kiwi-growing nation in the world (Italy, oddly, is first).
The United States ranks seventh, and 95 percent of U.S. kiwifruit is grown in California. Cultivated kiwifruit grows beautifully in the San Francisco Bay Area, although occasionally, unseasonably mild winters may not give the vines enough winter chill for them to flower well. Kiwi vines are either male or female, meaning that all species and cultivated
varieties need a male pollinator for fruit to form on the females.
THE ORGANIC FACTOR
You should be able to find organic kiwifruit in most markets that sell organic produce. Most of it will come from New Zealand, which is far ahead of the United States in the production of organic kiwifruit. Zespri International is a worldwide exporter of organic kiwis to the United States and the European Union, among other destinations.
NUTRITION
Kiwis have good stores of vitamin C—3 ounces provide almost twice the daily requirement for an adult.
TYPES
The green-fleshed kiwifruit found in most stores are invariably a variety called Hay-ward. Another type of kiwi—the golden kiwi (Actinidia chinensis)—is becoming more available of late. It’s virtually fuzzless, and some cultivars are pure golden yellow inside.
Besides these two, there are more cold-hardy types, notably vines of Actinidia arguta, which can withstand continental winters. Recently, this variety has moved from a novelty fruit into an economically important crop. The fruits are small, about the size of large table grapes, and the skins are edible and fuzzless. They were first an enthusiast’s crop, planted around North America by backyard fruit growers, until Mark Hurst of Hurst’s Berry Farm in Sheridan, Oregon, planted a large acreage and began to market the small fruits as “Baby Kiwi” in the late 1990s.
There’s also an ornamental form of baby kiwi, Actinidia kolomikta, that has green, pinkish-red, and white leaves. This species, too, has very sweet little fruits. And there’s a species called Actinidia purpurea that has a few cultivated varieties (Hardy Red, Ken’s Red) with sweet, eat-all red-fleshed fruits, but these are not on the market at the present time.
SEASONALITY
In America, kiwifruit ripen in late November or December and can be held for months in controlled storage. They are hard and unyielding to finger pressure until they ripen, when they have a slight give under light pressure. If you find only hard ones, a few days to a week on the windowsill should relax and sweeten them, as their starches change to sugar as they ripen.“Baby kiwis” are in season from September through November.
WHAT TO LOOK FOR
Make sure the kiwis are sound—no cuts or breaks in the skin. And while they can give to slight pressure, they shouldn’t feel mushy-soft. ....read more
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