Posted by Sunset, August 27, 2009 in Edibles
Hardy kiwi is almost too good. It ripens on the vine, and you don’t have to peel or pit it—just eat the whole thing. But when the harvest is ready, it comes by the bucketload: 100 pounds of fruit per vine is possible on Actinidia arguta 'Ananasnaja', pictured at right. Nobody can eat that much fruit, even after you use all you want to make scrumptious kiwi jam.
Michael Dolan at Burnt Ridge Nursery in Onlaska, WA, says the trick is to harvest the fruit when it’s firm-ripe. He picks when a refractometer tells him the fruit has enough sugar for harvest, but you can use a simpler method: harvest firm fruit when the first soft fruit appears on the vine. Refrigerate the firm fruit, taking out enough for a day or two every couple of days: they ripen at room temperature after you take them out of refrigeration.
The harvest starts now as variegated Arctic beauty (Actinidia kolomikta) matures its charcteristically light crop of small, very tasty fruit. Different varieties of heavier-bearing hardy kiwi (A. arguta and A. purpurea, which is red all the way through) will follow from September through November. The same firm-ripe harvest technique works for all.
If you don’t have any of the kiwis mentioned, Burnt Ridge is a good online source for plants. They also sell the fruit at the Olympia, WA, Farmer's Market Thursdays through Saturdays.
