What to do with under- or over-ripe kiwi fruit? Turn them into a delicious jam

In my endeavour to waste nothing, I’ve made it my mission to learn to love foods that I’d never have eaten before, learning to enjoy new and unfamiliar smells, textures and tastes.

One of the biggest challenges I’ve faced – which I found worse than any offal or funky ferment – is the skin of a kiwi fruit. To acquire the taste, I applied the theory that you can learn to like a food by trying it 10 times and, sure enough, I now eat kiwis like apples, merrily biting chunks out of the furry fruit and leaving no waste. If you don’t already do so, start by scrubbing the skin to remove some of the fur, then slice the fruit. That way, the skin holds the flesh together, but isn’t the prime textural experience. According to one paper on the health attributes of kiwi fruit, eating the skin can double the fibre content and increases the folate and vitamin content by almost a third.

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Unripe kiwis tend to be hard and unpalatable, but once they ripen, they bruise easily and melt into an undesirable mush. But you can easily make a jam with both under- or over-ripe kiwis, and this uses the whole fruit.

Kiwi jam

Kiwi jam is so delicious, I have no idea why it isn’t already widely eaten. It’s quick to make and a great way to use up an excess of under- or over-ripe kiwifruit. Like citrus, the kiwi season falls over our winter, making them a delicious, vitamin-rich – albeit imported – fruit to enjoy over the colder months when our seasonal fruit is in short supply. Kiwi fruit does grow in the UK and is ready to harvest in late summer, although they can be hard to obtain as it is only in small-scale small production.

Kiwi fruits, ideally organic or not sprayed with pesticides or fungicides

1 tbsp sugar per kiwi

1 tsp lemon juice per kiwi

Remove the hard node at the top and bottom of the kiwifruit without wasting any flesh.

Cut the fruit into slices and then into rough pieces. Put in a thick-based pan with both a tablespoon of sugar and teaspoon of lemon juice per kiwi fruit.

Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for 15 minutes, or until the mixture thickens and becomes gloopy. Eat within a week, or store in sterilised sealed jars indefinitely.