It’s just like you’d think, a teeny weeny Kiwi
What are these? I thought, as I pawed through this week’s farm box. I pulled out a basket of unappetizing-looking tiny green fruits wedged between the kale and carrot greens.
I put them aside and eyed them as I’d pass by the kitchen counter throughout the day. They looked like crab apples or unripe bitty pears. Since I had lost the explanation sheet of what was in the box, I really had no idea. They didn’t look good, kind of brown at the edges and wrinkled a bit.
Then I cut one open.
Inside is the bright jubilant flesh of a kiwi fruit. It tastes just the same too but the skin is thin, fuzz free and totally edible. It’s a baby kiwi. That’s what it is. I was totally and pleasantly surprised. I’d never heard of these, where did they come from? I did some digging.
This little known fall fruit is a cousin of the kiwi but rare and likes the cool climates of the Northwest and East. Kiwiberries are happy growing in Oregon or Pennsylvania but my Kiwiberries happened to come from Watsonville near Santa Cruz. There are only about 200 commercially grown acres of Kiwiberry, so don’t pass these little homely little fruit by.
They are the most nutrient dense of all the major fruits and have more than five times the vitamin C that oranges do. You can slice them up and toss in a salad or eat them whole like grapes. Kiwiberries grow on a fast growing, hardy vine but it takes seven years for the vine to bear fruit.
The growing season is short so look for them now at the market, they’ll be gone by November.
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