Saturday, December 08, 2007

Dragon Fruit


Yesterday I noticed this fruit the grocery store. Naturally, I had to give it a try. It is called Dragon fruit and a look at it on Wikipedia told me that it is actually an epiphytic vine-like cactus and is also called Pitaya and Strawberry pear, amongst others. The word epiphytic looked familiar and I realized that I did a post on Epiphytes quite sometime ago. Click on the link to learn more about them.

Pitaya is native to Central and South America, and its bloom is called Moonflower (it only blooms at night). There are two other types of Dragon fruit, one with a deep red interior and another that has yellow skin and a white interior.

To eat it one simply cuts a soft fruit in half and you can easily scoop out the flesh with a spoon. As for taste, it is actually quite dull. Similar to a kiwi fruit in that it has those crunchy seeds, but even less flavourful. However it is much larger than a kiwi.

Would I buy one again? No, not unless some kids were coming for dinner (I love exposing people, especially kids) to new things.

7 Comments:

Blogger Nickie said...

I've heard the seeds are very easy to start from teh dragon fruit. I've been wanting to try it but they don't sell it around here.

7:56 a.m.  
Blogger Muriel said...

Nickie, a grocery store in our tiny town of 5000 people (in British Columbia) happened to have it. Stores here have always brought in unusual things before Christmas.

Look at this page online for further info regarding growing it: http://dragon.fruit.pitaya.fruit.foodlywise.com/where_to_buy_dragon_fruit/

It may be difficult to grow. For further research look for pitaya, not moonflower, as there are many different plants with that common name.

Good luck. Its an attractive fruit from the outside as well.

11:54 a.m.  
Blogger Muriel said...

Links don't work very well in these Comment boxes. So let me try again, this time on two lines. Please combine them to go to the site:
http://dragon.fruit.pitaya.fruit.foodlywise.com/
where_to_buy_dragon_fruit/

Just copy and paste the first line into the address bar, then do the same for the second line. Hope that works!

11:58 a.m.  
Blogger Miranda Bell said...

I remember eating these when we were away in Vietnam - seem to remember they had an interesting taste!

I love your frosty pics... good to see someone else having fun taking pictures like this - we've had some amazing frosts in Brittany(N. France) and have loved the chance to take some different shots.. www.jardinmiranda.com - take a look if you get a minute!

Will visit here again...

1:28 a.m.  
Blogger Rusty in Miami said...

qubulvmHI I came across your post in the garden voices, I have that plant in my garden and for the first time, this year I got two fruits. I could not find anyone that could tell me the name of the fruit. The plant is comely know around here as Cactus Orchid or night bloomer. You are right the taste is not very interesting, but it is definitely a cool looking fruit. Thanks for the info now I can do posting about my Dragon Fruit.

10:28 a.m.  
Blogger kate said...

You're back! I am really happy to see this ... I have checked many times since May and hadn't come here for awhile.

Your photographs, as always, are superb!

8:22 p.m.  
Blogger Vims said...

I have had interesting tasting dragonfruit. But I agree with you...its not a fruit I'd buy unless Im having a whole lot of kids over for dinner.

8:33 a.m.  

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