A Forestdale family is inviting the community to join them at the Forestdale Dragonfruit Farm to enjoy animal experiences with alpacas, ducks, sheep, pigs, and chickens, and learn about dragonfruit farming.
Operated by Kevin Hu, his wife Tina and their children, Jonathan, Ethan and Isabella, the farm is open every day with entry costing just $5 per car.
Mr Hu said visitors could purchase readily-picked dragonfruit and organic chillies and vegetables, or pick their own fresh off the cactus.
“People can pick their own dragonfruits, which is a lot of fun,” he said.
“Our two female pigs just had 13 piglets recently; they are very cute.”
“We also keep some bees here to help with the pollination, and we sell dragonfruit honey made from the dragonfruit flower.”
![Experience farm magic at the Forestdale dragonfruit farm](http://thelakenews.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2022/06/Capture-1.jpg)
Mr Hu and his family produce many different colours of dragonfruit on their farm, including popular varieties and rare varieties that cannot be found at most supermarkets.
“We grow many different colours – we have purple, pink, yellow, white, red.
“The yellow ones have a very good lemonade flavour, and we have purple haze, which has a kiwifruit flavour.
“We also have ‘pink panther’ which tastes like Lychee.
“They are very very sweet – something which is very hard to find in the shop.”
The farm also produces the world’s sweetest variety of dragonfruit called ‘spikey yellow,’ which is the rarest in Australia.
Mr Hu previously worked in programming computers before moving on to become a farmer.
He moved to Australia from China in 2011 with his wife and 2-year-old son before purchasing their five-acre block in Forestdale nine years ago.
“Before the dragonfruit, we just kept some sheep here, and we started growing dragonfruit three years ago,” he said.
The farm produces around 30 tonnes of dragonfruit per year, but the biggest challenge is finding profitable wholesale market solutions.
Often a whole palette of dragonfruit will only make $100 profit because the cost of shipping is so high.
“That is the biggest challenge this year,” Mr Hu said.
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The farm is open every day from 8:00 am – 5:00 pm at 151 Dickman Road in Forestdale.
Entry cost is just $5 per car with up to 7 friends or family members. The entry cost will be reimbursed if more than $20 is spent on the farm.
Commercial group visits will cost $5 per person.
For more information visit the Forestdale Dragonfruit Farm Facebook page, contact Kevin Hu on 0426 501 978 or visit the farm during open hours.