Last of the Zespris?
Not sure how we missed this bit of news: apparently the Kiwifruit was rebranded “the zespri” by New Zealand Kiwi-er-‘Zespri’ growers in 1996. “Kiwi” was originally a marketing strategy anyway, to boost sales to New Zealanders (also called Kiwis…) after a few of the woody vines were brought back from China by a teacher named Isabel Fraser. In China, the fruit was known as “yang tao,” and elsewhere as “Chinese Gooseberry,” probably its most accurate name. The name was briefly changed to “melonette,” but the Maori word “Kiwi” was chosen when Auckland growers found out there were import tariffs on melons. Seeds were introduced the same year (1909) to Chico, one of the handful of foreign plant induction centers around the country. Horticulturists here had mostly male plants, and little success growing the fruit. In the time it took us to figure out what we were missing, New Zealand’s market took off.
Italy is now the world’s largest exporter of Kiwis, followed by New Zealand and Chile. But in the US, California is where it’s at. The pioneers of commercial kiwi production in California were Judd Ingram in Delano (1967) and George Tanimoto in our little Durham (1968).
Kiwis are an awesome fruit. They’re higher in vitamin c than most citrus, higher in potassium than bananas, contain folate, copper, vitamin E, fiber and lutein. They’re also one of the few local fruits we get here during the winter time. The northern hemisphere season for Kiwis is from October to now, in April. We are currently carrying out LAST LOCAL CROP of them from Belton Farms in Durham, and they’re delicious, no matter what you call them.
