Kiwi Berries!

Day 275: While watering the garden yesterday evening, I happened to raise my eyes from ground level and what did I see? Two kiwi berries, hiding deep among the foliage! If you'll recall, our 100-degree hot spell caused hundreds of potential fruit to drop before it had begun to swell, at a point where I could not say for certain whether fertilization had occurred. Purportedly, this variety of Hardy Kiwi ("Issai") is self-fertile, but I have never gotten fruit from either of two vines. I'd hoped that this year it would produce a crop, having bloomed at the same time pollinators were on the wing. Those hundreds of little kiwis showed enormous potential, but then the heat wave hit, and even the gooseberries and currants shed most of their fruit. Fortunately, both were close to ripe and I was able to salvage enough for a batch of jam (I picked the few remaining late ones last night). The kiwis, however, were a sad failure. No bigger than a pencil eraser, they dropped from the vines like a sudden green hailstorm. Had they all developed, I'd have had enough kiwi berries to feed a small army. When temperatures cooled down, I did a visual inspection and found one berry sheltering under the dense foliage at the peak of the arch trellis. That solo berry is still hanging on, and these two make it a trio; maybe not enough for a snack, but scientific evidence that Issai is self-fertile after all.