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There is no need to slay a dragon to get to the fruit named after the fiery beast, passionate farmer Jackye Riddle, who has also created several dragon fruit varieties of her own, says.
Riddle, said pitaya (dragon fruit) farming was wonderful, and people were becoming more aware of the health benefits of the super fruit.
In an effort to educate people about the plant, Riddle opened the gates to her Patensie farm — The Dragon Fruit Farm — at the weekend for people to pick, weigh and pay for the produce.
The Dragon Fruit Farm supplies Woolworths, Pick n Pay, Checkers, SPAR and the Food Lover’s Market.
There are about 10 other dragon fruit farmers in the country, Riddle said.
Riddle said they would be opening the farm to the public every weekend going forward.
“It’s is heartwarming to see people of all ages brave the weather to come and experience something new,” she said.
“We have 22 varieties of the fruit, many of which I breed. I have my own names for them.
“Some I’ve just given code names and colours.
“One of our best varieties, which is by one of our workers Alex, is in my opinion undoubtedly one of the best varieties you can get in the world,” she said.
Dragon fruit is the fruit of several different cactus species indigenous to the Americas.
Riddle said having a wide variety of fruits was an advantage because they flowered at different times. This meant they had a constant supply of the fruit.
Some of their breeds, Americans Call, the American Beauty, Cosmic Charley, Physical Graffiti, Dark Star to mention a few — are the more common varieties.
The flower of the dragon fruit, which is also known as the Queen of the Night, only opens at 8pm and closes at 8am.
“When it’s overcast, like today, it’s fantastic because they have a delayed closing and people can see both flower and plant.
“We are a fully organic farm; we don’t use any poisons because the flowers need to be pollinated by insects at night,” she said.
She said they had six full-time labourers working through the year, and during harvest season she employed between 20 and 40 more people.
“Eleven years ago we received the fruit cuttings and 10 years ago we started planting them. Later I started developing my own varieties.
“We are going to be getting 100 more varieties which will mean that we will breed the biggest variety of dragon fruit in the world,” she said.
Riddles said the Dragon Fruit Farm did not export any of its fruit as they wanted to keep it local.
“We want to encourage and educate the people from the Eastern Cape and SA broadly about the product,” Riddle said, adding that they wanted to tap into the tourism market.
“At some point we want people to come to our farm here in the mountains and sit along the river and enjoy food and also enjoy the great outdoors as they pick the dragon fruit.
“Dragon Fruit is going to explode because farmers are starting to grow many hectares of the plant, she said.
“South Africans are starting to learn about its enormous benefits. It is a ‘super fruit’ but now it is being heralded as a super-super fruit because of its qualities.
“Dragon fruit flowers may be used for tea which gives energy. We will start producing soap as well from the leaves.”
The dragon fruit is high in nutrients, it can help fight chronic diseases, it is high in fibre, promotes a healthy gut, boosts immune system, boosts iron and is a good source for magnesium, she said.
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