Never heard of Acadiana’s exotic dragon fruit nursery? You’re not alone.
As The Advertiser reports, even if you knew what to look for and where to find it, you’d still probably miss it. The fruit farm hides behind an ordinary house on La. 347 between Breaux Bridge and Parks.
But if you stumbled upon the right place, Tye Miller might welcome you into his home, where the interior contemporary furnishings contrast the house’s traditional brick exterior. You’d probably notice the electric guitars on display in the living room, and discover that one room has been transformed into a hockey rink.
Miller, 44, might show you the exotic paradise in his backyard where pineapples, bananas, passion fruits and more than 50 varieties of dragon fruit grow.
Miller isn’t your average exotic-fruit-growing dad. By day, he manages an information technology company. By night, he’s an ice hockey player and exotic fruit farmer.
“You’re not going to come to Louisiana and find somebody else with a hockey room in the house and dragon fruit plants in the backyard,” Miller says.
Although he has sold thousands of plant cuttings through his business, Spicy Exotics, it remains a relatively small, home-based operation few locals know about. Miller’s background in IT made selling online the more natural option over selling locally at farmers markets.
“We did a reverse selling process where we started selling globally before we actually tried the local market,” Miller says. “And to our surprise, there are lots of local people who heard about the plant but never had the opportunity to see it. Who would have thought the business would have had any interest locally?”
