Dragon Fruit Stock Photo

They look like fireballs on the outside but offer breezy, fresh bites of summer goodness. Make sure to peel the pink skin off, then dive into an interior of polka-dots. They make gorgeous summer salads as well! Dragon fruit lovers in Taiwan now have the opportunity to enjoy the summer fruit in winter, thanks to improvements in growing techniques, an agricultural research station said Saturday. The improvements are the results of efforts by the government-run agricultural research station in Taichung, which has been growing the fruit using artificial lighting at night to make out-of-season harvests possible. Dragon fruit grown in winter in this way are large and have a high sugar content, the station said. Lower winter temperatures result in a longer growth period, which, coupled with bigger day and night temperature fluctuations, enable the fruit to better accumulate nutrients, according to the research station.