The Captivating Kiwi Fruit
WHICH fruit is reputed to have the flavours of a strawberry, banana, melon and pineapple, all rolled into one? It is the kiwi fruit of New Zealand. The egg-sized brown berry with a hairy skin was named after the unique flightless bird that lived on the island the kiwi, because it resembled the bird's fuzzy feathers. The kiwi fruit is also known as the Chinese gooseberry or monkey peach. Its seeds were brought by a traveller from China to New Zealand in 1904, where it was planted on North Island. Today, more than a billion kiwi fruits are exported annually to over 30 countries. New Zealand is the largest producer of kiwi fruit in the world.
Te Puke, a tiny east coast town on North Island is the kiwi fruit capital of the world. Its warm, wet climate and volcanic soil favour the vines which grow at an amazing rate of 16 cm a day! They have to be pruned constantly or they get inextricably tangled. The fruit is hand-picked before it is fully ripe and its harvesting has become a frenzied national event in New Zealand. Packed in trays like eggs and chilled in cool sheds at 00C, kiwi fruit remain in perfect condition for upto 6 months.
It is the only fruit to have bright green flesh. The minute black seeds are edible. Kiwi fruit is also the most nutritious fruit in the world. Gram for gram, it provides more iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, Vitamin C and riboflavin than apples, pears, peaches and oranges. It is high in fibre, contains about 45 calories and has no cholesterol or sodium.