Dragon Fruit - Olowalu Style

[ricshaw]

Last week my wife and I stopped at the famous Leoda's Kitchen for lunch on Maui.




We checked out the fruit at a fruit and juice stand.

[ricshaw]

We bought some Mangos to eat. 




One of the guys at the fruit stand invited us to check out his garden.

I took pictures of his Dragon Fruit.






He uses the same Dragon Fruit support and trellis like UCCE Irvine does.

[HIfarm]

Thanks for posting the pics of the dragonfruit "trellis", always interesting to see how others are doing it.

Yikes, $2.50 each for papaya?  Did you visit any other fruit stands there?  Just wondering if this place is that high or all of Maui is.  I think standard price in Hilo is about 3 / $1, although I have seen them a lot cheaper than that.  I guess we must have a glut here with all the papaya produced in Puna.

John

[ricshaw]

Across the street is a local beach park.




The site is also the location of an old sugar mill ruins.

[ricshaw]

Thanks for posting the pics of the dragonfruit "trellis", always interesting to see how others are doing it.

Yikes, $2.50 each for papaya?  Did you visit any other fruit stands there?  Just wondering if this place is that high or all of Maui is.  I think standard price in Hilo is about 3 / $1, although I have seen them a lot cheaper than that.  I guess we must have a glut here with all the papaya produced in Puna.

John

No, just grocery stores.

We found prices on Maui about 1.5X more than on the mainland.

I am sure locals know about sources cheaper than places that cater to tourists.

I was still happy to be eating fresh mango in January.



I do not know where the mangos came from. Good, but not the best tasting. 

[starling1]

Last week my wife and I stopped at the famous Leoda's Kitchen for lunch on Maui.




We checked out the fruit at a fruit and juice stand.

I considered building a trellis like this, but ultimately the tendrils will bend the grate  and this will sag, and access to the post will be lost as the plant will become impenetrable.

[ricshaw]

Up at Mokuleia Bay I was surprised to find the beach littered with prickly pear cactus.








I finally figured out where it was coming from.   

[ricshaw]

I always have my Dragon Fruit radar on. 

I found this growing by the road.




I do not know what this is.




I was excited to find some Dragon Fruit growing "wild"! 

This was my first time seeing Dragon Fruit growing unsupervised.






This was located near the entrance to the Kapalua Plantation Golf course.

[ricshaw]

I did not know much about Maui grown coffee until I visited the MauiGrown Coffee Company Store in Lahaina.

We visited the Ka'anapali Coffee Farm. The Ka‘anapali Coffee Farm was once a vast sugar cane plantation run by Pioneer Mill Company.
In the 1990's 500 acres was converted to coffee fields. From test trials of 28 varieties; Maui Mokka, Red Catuai, Yellow Caturra, and Typica were picked for farming.
The current owner is subdividing the farm for selling as small farm lots. 

[cos]

yes road side Maui DF is impressive BUT I HAVE NEVER SEEN ANY FRUIT!!
I have also seen the vines bulldoze into great piles along side the road.
Hope you enjoy your stay.

[ricshaw]

yes road side Maui DF is impressive BUT I HAVE NEVER SEEN ANY FRUIT

Interesting. Have you ever seen it flower?

The guy growing Dragon Fruit in Olowalu said he only got fruit every other year.

[cfinley]

We just stopped at that same roadside stand today. The juice was delicious! Just don't buy any of the orangish dragonfruits. They looked they might be a hybrid like Frankie's Red or something, so I asked if they were fully ripe and supposed to be that color. He assured me they were, so I bought 3/$20 (over priced yeah but worth it to bring home seeds from a rare variety) but when we got back to the room and cut them up, they were VERY unripe. Tasted like a mouthful of dirt, like the worst part of eating a beet x10 

Buyer beware I guess