A ripe kiwi fruit tastes fruity and fresh, like a mixture of strawberries, gooseberries and melon. The fruits are harvested when they are unripe and must be stored in a cool place for some time to ripen. When brought into the warmth they develop their full aroma.
How can kiwis be allowed to ripen?
To allow kiwis to ripen, store the unripe fruits at 10-15 °C. To ripen faster, bring the kiwis into a warm place a few days before eating or place them with other ripe fruit, such as apples, to speed up the ripening process.
Kiwis are climacteric, i.e. H. ripening fruits. For this reason, we can buy the fruits that grow in subtropical regions in our supermarkets all year round. In the growing countries, the kiwis are harvested unripe and ripen during the long transport. The kiwis are imported into Germany at different times from different countries:
- from April to November from Chile and New Zealand,
- from September from Italy, Greece or France.
After the harvest
The hairy, brown fruits are still very hard and inedible after harvesting, they taste sour. The fruits must ripen at 10-15°C. For a longer shelf life, temperatures of around 5° C are required. The kiwi fruits reach full ripeness after several weeks. The kiwis from your own garden can, for example, B. be stored in the basement. Single-layer storage in boxes has a beneficial effect on shelf life.
Furniture at room temperature
The fruits intended for immediate consumption are brought into the warm a few days in advance, where they ripen and develop their full aroma. A few days are enough for them to become soft and sweet. The green-fleshed kiwis with hairy skin have more acid. The gold kiwis with yellow-green flesh taste much more tender and sweet. They contain less actinidin - the enzyme that makes dairy products taste bitter - and can therefore be easily processed into quark, yoghurt and milkshakes.
Tips & Tricks
If you want to speed up the ripening process of the kiwis, place them with other ripe fruit, e.g. E.g. next to the apples.
