General Information
A delicious gold-fleshed fruit imported from New Zealand and available May through September, the Gold Kiwi is completely edible and filled with vitamins C and E, fiber and potassium. Yellow fleshed, speckled with black seeds and contained within an edible smooth skin, the Gold Kiwi contains the flavors of mango, melon, citrus and honey. Like the better known green kiwi, the shape of the Gold kiwi is ovate, but missing the pointed end that distinguishes the green kiwi. Peel and cut kiwis into bite-sized pieces or eat out of hand like and apple (because their skin is edible).
Kiwi is a fruit that’s indigenous to China; teacher named Isabel Fraser brought kiwi seeds (yang tao) to New Zealand from China in 1904. Horticulturist, Alexander Allison planted those seeds and Hayward Wright would continue the cultivation and development of an entirely new variety which is now considered the common kiwi fruit. Gold Kiwi is a patented variety which was bred in New Zealand in the 1970s from one seedling by breeder Russell Lowe. Though the cultivar’s technical name is Hort 16a, when introduced to the United States in 1999, it’s commercial name is now Zespri® Gold.
