Dragon fruit is also known as pitahaya or pitaya. The flesh, which can be various colors depending on the variety, is peppered with edible black seeds.
“Before we started to grow it, we didn’t know what dragon fruit was,” Betsy says. “We had this land waiting to figure out what we were going to do.” A conversation with agricultural folks at the San Diego County Fair first planted the seed. The Brixeys went to a University of California field day focused on dragon fruit, where their taste buds awakened to the possibilities. Now they’ve been growing the fruit for about seven years; their children and family members often help out with social media and other tasks. A hands-on approach It can be a demanding crop. The work is done organically and by hand, from pollinating and harvesting to dealing with pests and predators. (It’s Betsy’s job to pick off the snails since she’s a foot shorter than her spouse.) Hand pollination can be a chore, “but you’re ensuring a good pollination,” Kevin says. “We don’t always know that the bees are doing the full job.” Using a small handheld vacuum, he collects pollen from the cactus flowers. As they bloom at night, he—and sometimes Betsy and other family members—returns
with a headlamp and small brush to dab the stored pollen into each flower. “It’s a big job because there are some nights when we might have three or four thousand flowers,” Betsy says. At harvest time, the fruit is carefully picked, washed in a vinegar solution, graded and set upside down in a crate to dry. Within a day or two, Kevin takes the crop to market. The Brixeys opened up the farm to visitors a few years ago partly because they were throwing away too much fruit—mainly “seconds” with marks or blemishes on the skin. Many visitors thought they didn’t like dragon fruit because they had only tasted an import, Betsy says, but were converted after trying fresh samples. In addition to tastings, the farm offers occasional tours and even an opportunity to help pollinate the exotic, sweetly scented flowers. It’s a popular visitor experience. “People come and they think it’s just amazing,” Kevin says. “Sometimes you just don’t realize what a place is to other people.”
Cyndee Fontana-Ott cbmagazine@californiabountiful.com
10
July/August 2023
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