When Fruit Art Is Your Side Hustle

A dried up curly end of a cucumber spelled the very beginning of a side business Lauren Ho didn’t even realise was coming.

Lauren takes your average fruits and vegetables and turns them into refreshing, playful works of art. She’s used grapefruit to make an ocean wave, arugula for an alligator, and has made an orca from red cabbage, just to name a few.

“I look for different colours, different textures. I consider how juicy it is, how it’ll look if I cut it open, if it’ll create a nice clean line, or if it’ll become really mushy, how that would play into different images.”

It all began when Lauren joined two of her friends who had just opened their own company—The Juice Truck, which Lauren is currently the General Manager of.

“During slower times, I’d play around with the products. One day, I made a funny face out of a cucumber.”

That cucumber was uploaded onto The Juice Truck’s instagram account, and the response it got encouraged her to do more. Eventually, she started her own instagram account dedicated to just her fruit art creations. And from that, it’s turned into a side hustle, where Lauren is fielding opportunities to collaborate with other companies and people.

“Once you open a door, things keep coming. I haven’t put a tonne of energy into seeking out these collaborations, they come to me.”

For Lauren, it’s about taking opportunities when they come up and not being afraid of them. Her latest collaboration was with an eco-skincare brand, creating fruit art out of ingredients from their products. She’s now also looking to illustrate a kids alphabet book.

“I found this outlet later in life, and connected with that past feeling of doing art. Becoming as an adult, you lose that side of things.”

“Don’t forget about your passions from childhood, because it’s never too late to keep exploring them and keeping having fun with them. You never know if it could turn into another job or another side income.”

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