Hello once again from lovely St. John.  It’s been a while since our last blog post, and here we are in the middle of summer with nothing but the heat and the beaches, so we decided to fire up the ol’ keyboard again.

Late summer in the Virgin Islands has it’s advantages and disadvantages.

Some disadvantages: 

– Prime Hurricane Season

– Restaurant and other Business Closings for off-season AKA no cash flow

– Hot as a Habanera on an open flame

Some advantages:

– You can finally find parking at the beaches

– Some world class, fireworks-style sunsets

– Time to work on new recipes

– Local fruit season!

For example, check out this local Dragon Fruit vines that are growing in our yard here in Coral Bay.  According to one well-known plant-loving generational Virgin Islander, these native cactus have been growing wild in Upper Carolina for as long as she can remember, and we are lucky enough to have bumper crop this year, perhaps due to the unusually large amount of rain we have been getting lately, possibly a side effect from El Nino in 2023.

The Dragon Fruit Cactus (Hylocereus Undatus) is in the family of night blooming cereus, and it’s large white and yellow flowers appear from about July through October.  They only bloom for one glorious night, and because of this, I was not able to get a good shot of one for this blog post.

After they bloom, the flowers wilt and die off, eventually shriveling up and in their place grows a Dragon Fruit!  You can see here a large cluster of still-green fruits with their wilted flowers attached.

Normally, the Pearly-Eyed Thrashers, the birds known on St. John as Thrushies, ruin just about every fruit one comes across.  And they’re kind of jerks about it, too.  It’s one thing to eat it for yourself, bird.  It’s another to just poke a hole in it and leave it for the ants.

I haven’t had any luck ripening the Dragon Fruit from when it is green if it’s picked from the vine.  One really has to let it do it’s thing naturally, and therein lies the danger of having it eaten by another creature before one can get to it.

So we have taken to placing some netted produce bags over the green fruits once we see them and securing the bags with a loose rubber band.  This seems to protect it most of the time.  But a lot of the fruits are hard to reach (did I mention they are on a cactus?), and often well hidden until they ripen on the vine, as this one has done.  They outer peel turns a bright, vivid pink, which is not very tasty but much easier to spot than the unripe fruit, both for humans and thrushies alike.

The Dragon Fruit on our property have only gotten to about the size of a tennis ball.  You may have seen them in a specialty grocery store much larger, but they have about the same flavor profile: mildly sweet, with a delicate white flesh and small, edible black seeds not unlike a kiwi has.  Some Dragon Fruit have bright pink flesh that almost matches the peel, and they are reportedly sweeter than the white fleshed ones.  Here you can see some of our fruit cut open before we eat them!  (They were delicious).

I like to chill ours, both to keep them fresh longer, but to make them into a cool, refreshing treat.  To make them even cooler and more refreshing, try out a very simple dragon fruit sorbet recipe (below) if you feel like putting your chef skills to the test at home. 

Or, as an alternative, book with us and you might be one of the lucky clients to try it from one of our chefs.  An ice cold treat to get you through the record breaking heat on island this summer!

Dragon Fruit Sorbet

3 cups peeled and chopped dragon fruit flesh (with seeds)
1/2 cup sugar
2 T Fresh Lemon Juice
2 ½ T Water

In a blender, combine all ingredients and blend on high for 1 minute or until combined and smooth.  Add a little more water if necessary.

Pour ingredients into Ice Cream Maker and freeze while your paddle is going for about 30 minutes or until the mixture is nearly solid and has a good consistency.

Alternatively, you can make a granita, which is a coarser version of this, by freezing the mixture in a shallow pan and scraping it with a fork or spoon after it’s solid.

Serve immediately or keep in the freezer up to 2 weeks.

Enjoy!