Hardy Kiwi

If you get garden catalogues, as I do, you may have noticed this type of advertisement:

Giant Tomato - AS SEEN ON TV - SUPERSIZE YOUR TOMATOES with the Giant Tomato which zooms to an Amazing 8 Feet in Just 90 Days! Each Set You Order Contains Plants!

or

AMAZING Egg Tree 15 Seeds-Grow Indoors/Out-Edible Fruit

Of course, a little research will uncover that these are not very amazing at all, plants that are neither tomatoes nor, of course, eggs. So it was with quite a bit of skepticism that I read about hardy kiwi vines, which survive temperatures of -25degrees F. These advertisements typically note that the hardy kiwis are the size of grapes. "Sure," thinks I "Grow on vines, hardy, size of grapes...they're probably some kind of furry grape."

To my surprise, I came across these today at the Evanston Farmer's Market:



A query revealed that they were, indeed, the hardy kiwis of plant catalogue fame (they also had hardy figs, of which I am EXTREMELY jealous) and that the vines were growing over a trellis. I tasted one, and, yes - they are unquestionably kiwis (to the extent that the hard ones are nearly inedible, and the soft ones have the same bright-sweet flavor with a crunch of seeds in the middle, just on a smaller scale, and the bonus is they don't need peeling.

Here's a shot with an average-size sunflower seed for scale:


Apparently the vines grow like crazy, but can take years to set fruit - but can be grown in containers, as they don't really care if the ground gets frozen! I think I'll be getting some next year...

There are male and female vines, so you will need a lot of space.

Properly ripe the hardy kiwis can be eaten like large grapes. The hardy type have a sweeter sugar/acid balance than standard kiwis. It is a good thing that peeling is unnecessary as peeling them would be more tedious than turning mushrooms.

Len Klug used to sell hardy kiwis in Chicago farmers' markets before he retired after much of his farm was taken for a highway project. I suspect that his vines as well as many of his fruit trees have been replaced by concrete or asphalt.