Dragon fruit: a weapon to fight food insecurity

Although he has long owned and operated a wood-turning business on his 1,5ha smallholding in KwaZulu-Natal’s Drummond area, Frikkie Adams has also spent years looking for an interesting, “but low-maintenance”, crop to experiment with as a hobby in his semi-retirement.

In May last year, Adams saw some strange-looking grapefruit-sized fruit for sale at his local Spar. They were dragon fruit, and he was so interested to learn more that he happily paid R19,50 for just one fruit for further investigation.

At home, he peeled the purple outer skin and ate the white flesh, which was full of tiny black seeds.

“It had a very unusual flavour that I still find difficult to describe,” explains