It’s dragon fruit season or as I like to refer to them as – “fruit of the dragon”. A little homage to Game of Thrones I guess, plus it just sounds so much more exotic. Last season, we didn’t get a very large harvest which I believe has a lot to do with our lack of bees. This year, however, looks a little better, and we’re seeing bees on the flowers which is great.
Dragon fruit, also known as pitaya, comes in different colors and varieties. We have two varieties, one that is white inside and one that is deep purple. For those who haven’t had, the closest comparison in taste and consistency would be something like a kiwi. They’re especially good cold, and in this hot dry summer they will be a welcome treat.
In the basket above, most of them are white inside. The fruit that is in the middle with longer green “leaves/petals” and that is slightly darker looking is dark purple inside. The purple ones also tend to be slightly small in size.
The other thing that is ripening now are our mangoes. Mangoes may just be my favorite fruit of all time, and I like a lot of fruit. We cover our mangoes with a small netted bag to keep fruit flies from enjoying them before we get a chance ourselves. We have a number of different varieties.
The above bowl has three different varieties – manzanilla (dark red on the right originated from Mexico), R2E2 (top light colored, Australian variety), and rapoza (left hand side, it’s a local cross mango). The R2E2 although cultivated in Australia, has its origins from the Kent mango grown in Florida. The Manzanillo mango is thought to have originated from a Haden mango seedling, although, they look quite different from the Haden. They were introduced into Hawaii around 1978. Rapoza’s were cultivated from an Irwin avocado in the mid 70’s at the University of Hawaii. I have to say they’re all good. I definitely can tell a bad mango when I taste one, but when it comes to good mangoes, all of the above are great, and I can’t tell the difference in taste between any of the above. My husband probably could, however.
I see a lot of tangerines and oranges on the tree, although I’d say they’re probably a few months away from harvesting. It is a hot dry dry summer. Our lawn is getting brown and crunchy which is something we haven’t seen for many years. We’re on catchment, which means our water source is from rain. Our tank is a little below half, so we’re more conscious of our water usage – shorter showers, no washing cars, etc. Hurricane Fernanda is now a tropical storm and I’m hoping we feel some rain from the remnants of it this weekend, but it looks like it may miss us completely.
Follow my blog
Leave a Reply