Kiwis - Fruit or fiction?

Kiwifruit, small, brown and fuzzy but oh so delicious. Yes they can be a bit of a pain to peel or perhaps you prefer to cut them in half and scoop out the tasty, nutritious pulp. So versatile you can use it for toppings, fruit salad, smoothies, garnish or my personal favorite, on top of a pavlova. M-mm! Love them or hate them, they have an intriguing story, one which surprisingly, few people know.

Of course, they have their downsides. They can be expensive and will make your mouth sting if you eat too many. It has also been rumored that they can cause unexpected bathroom visits but in moderation, these cute little guys are a very healthy snack. And did I mention delicious?

Have you ever considered why these strange, little fruit are called kiwis or kiwifruit? It really is such a strange name but they have not always been as popular or glamorous or even named kiwis. We need to go back several decades to when this poor fruit was almost considered a weed growing in people’s gardens and backyards way down under in New Zealand. You may have heard the word Kiwis before, or perhaps you know one. You might even know that New Zealanders proudly call themselves Kiwis. So now you are thinking, why would they name themselves after a fruit? The short answer is - they didn't, and likewise the fruit is not named after the people.

To explain, we need to go back even further, over 60 million years to be exact, to when New Zealand was young and inhabited by some strange creatures who roamed the earth. One such creature was a small, brown furry creature. Well actually it was feathered, nocturnal and eventually became flightless, but ngutu roa, as the natives who came later would call it, was a bird. The common name of kiwi, for this adorable little, ground grubbing bird is thought to have come from the noise that it makes. We are fortunate that this wonderful little feathered friend survived while it’s relative, a giant 12 foot Emu-like bird called a Moa, became extinct.

So what happened, did someone mistake a baby kiwi for a fruit and call it a kiwi? Well no, kiwifruit isn't even native to New Zealand. In fact it was not even taken to New Zealand from China until the early 1900's and it quickly became known as Chinese Gooseberries. The seeds grew well in the New Zealand climate and by the mid 1900's they were flourishing in many backyards across the country. While New Zealanders loved this wee fruit, in season they were so prolific, people couldn't give them away. New Zealanders, who by this time were well known as Kiwi's (yes named after their beloved little bird) tried exporting their Chinese Gooseberries but without much success, they dropped the 'Chinese' but still had limited success.

In 1959, it was decided that Chinese gooseberries needed a makeover and some serious PR work, so that the rest of the world would see what Kiwis knew all along. The decision was made to call them kiwifruit as what would be better than naming their beloved fruit after the beloved bird which was also small, brown and furry? So Chinese gooseberries were renamed, re-branded and re-marketed for export and the rest, as they say is history. In fact, with New Zealand's annual fruit and vegetable exports at around 5.5 billion a year, Kiwifruit now proudly makes up around 32% of that at 1.8 billion dollars. Not bad for something nobody wanted before it aligned itself to a bird, a nation and a culture. What a difference a name makes!