Today we took a trip to the pineapple farm. We certainly learned a lot about their agricultural practices and many statistics that came along with it. Here in Costa Rica they can about 200 inches of rainfall per year. This is good because pineapples actually need to be under stress to be able to produce the pineapple fruit. This is because when the plant is under stress it releases a chemical called ethylene that stimulates the production of the pineapple fruit. In order to be able to enjoy this product, farmers need about 14 to 17 months in order to produce the size of the pineapple we crave and love in the states. Essentially the bigger the pineapple plant the bigger the pineapple that it will produce, so the longer we have to wait for the plant to be able to reach its optimal size for pineapple production. They even told me that the larger pineapples get sent to the states and the smaller ones go to Europe.
The farm that we went to was an organic farm. You can tell an organic pineapple plant from a conventional pineapple plant due to the plastic that lays along the soil the plant is buried. This is because they do not use chemicals, so in order to be able to protect the pineapple from weeds, they provide them no space for light. The process of laying down this much plastic takes about 8 hours to do one hectacre. Pineapples also love Nitrogen, along the same basis, not using chemicals means they need alternatives for pests, weeds, and fertilizers. In order to be able to provide the pineapple the nitrogen that they are looking for, they stood a lot of chicken onto the pineapple fields, and in order to be able to keep pests away they use an onion, garlic, and hot pepper mix to be utilized as a repellent against insects.
One of the hardest things about being an organic pineapple producer is the fact that so much pineapple goes to waste. In order to be able to be shipped, the pineapple must look perfect. Simply without the pineapple being a pristine condition they cannot ship it outside of the country. Costa Rica is one of the top exporters of pineapple to the United States and Europe. Approximately 35% of all organic pineapple that is produced is rejected and cannot be shipped out of the country. Wihere as conventional this number is much smaller at about 10% rejects. Many of these rejects go to local farms.
A cool process that they are doing is through the soil itself. When you have so little crap rotation, you need to be able to help maintain the soil nutrient contents and microorganisms. In order to be able to maintain the microorganisms, the farmers go into the jungle and look for soil. They then proceed to cook rice and put it in a glass jar along with the soil. After a while they are then able to take the rice and mixture, and they are able to use a dye to help divide the microorganisms into the different species that they are. Some species will turn green, others will turn blue, while some purple. They then collect the good mycorrhizal bacteria and place it onto their fields.
Once the pinepple has reached its mature stage, It is then able to be placed under those stressful situations that induce the production of fruit. Unlike bananas, once a pineapple is taken from its plant it begins its fermentation process. You must ship a pineapple ripe as it will not continue to ripen during shipping. Another thing that they do in the shipping process is they cut the tops of the pineapple crown to be able to fit more pineapple into a single space. In order to be able to determine when the pineapple is ready to be shipped and harvested, the plantations owners do not look for color, size, or timing. However, what the farmers look for when they are preparing a fully riped pineapple field for harvest is in fact the sugar concentration. Because of how pineapples are set up, they naturally grow from the bottom to the top. As they continue through maturing stages, you will find that the sugar concentration in the base of a pineapple will be greater than the sugar concentration at the top.
Some other interesting things that you don't find super commonly especially in the United States, is the fact that every single one of these pineapple plants is planted by hand. Not only this, they are also picked by hand. They take a conveyor belt across the field and pick each of the pineapples. In approximately 8 hours, 50,000 pineapples can be harvested. Another interesting thing is that while pineapple itself may be considered one whole fruit, it is in fact many smaller fruits combined together, just like the raspberry. When looking at fruiting plants, each flower that is produced by a plant is technically one fruit, because the pineapple plant produces many flowers that combine together to make the pineapple we know and love each of the sections that you find throughout the pineapple is technically its own fruit.
A wild animals such as raccoons, possums, and coati are not a threat to the pineapple production process. This is because raccoons, possums, and coati look for yellow ripe fruit and before they consider eating it.
For those of you who are reading my blog, and like pineapple, you may find this next portion to be very very helpful for you the next time you're shopping for a pineapple. The gentleman told me that during the shipping process from Costa Rica to the United States that the pineapple is kept at a temperature of approximately 45° f. This is to help maintain the shelf life of the pineapple. However, one thing that people are finding is that when you are at the grocery store the pineapple is stored at room temperature on a shelf. This process of placing it on a shelf at room temperature only accelerates the fermentation process. Here's where things might get a little bit more interesting. The tour guy told us exactly what we should look for when picking out a pineapple from the store. He said traditionally people like to pull out the center leaves of the crown to determine whether or not the pineapple is ripe and sometimes people like to smell the pineapple to see if it smells like pineapple. When in fact both of these two methods of determining the rightness of a pineapple are incorrect. When in the shipping process from Costa Rica to the United States, the Costa Ricans who transport the pineapple like to cover it in a veggie wax. The veggie wax is to help conserve the pineapple and slow down the fermentation process. This results in the pineapple not smelling like pineapple by the time it approaches the store. In fact if you find a pineapple that smells like pineapple, you should turn that pineapple down because it is likely that many people have grabbed the pineapple to aggressively and have either bruised the pineapple exposing its insides to provide the smell, or they have taken the wax off with their hands. Another thing to look for is that the pineapple should be between a green and yellow color, they say that you are looking for one that is more green than yellow. You also want a solid pineapple that is firm on the outside. Another thing that you can do to determine the ripeness of a pineapple is to look at the crown. The crown should be a dark green color, and instead of grabbing the center leaf to see the ease of its ability to come out of the pineapple, you should instead grab the lowest to leaf of the crown and gently shake the pineapple. If the pineapple is in its proper stages for consumption you should find that the pineapple does not fall due to the breaking of the leaf. If the leaf does break the pineapple is going bad and is too far in its ripening stages, meaning you should leave it on the shelf for either another individual or for the store to take care of. When you buy a pineapple, it is also important to consider putting the pineapple in your fridge or somewhere that maintains 45° or lower to ensure longer shelf life.
This tour was very interesting and had a lot to share about pineapples. Not only this I was able to try a couple of things that I am not familiar with. I got to try a soursop juice, which was delicious, and at the end of the tour we even got virgin pina coladas. I must know in here as well that I do not like pineapple in the states, however, here in Costa Rica the pineapple is superior and something that I can enjoy.
A couple of other interesting things that were not a part of the tour were we got to see and hear howler monkeys in the wild and we got the opportunity to witness a toucan in the wild.
After we all finished our virgin pina coladas, we hopped onto the bus and headed toward the heart of Palm. Once we were here we had lunch, some of the things that we had for lunch were different from back at home. We had what is known as palmetto and papacones. These come from the pediharves of the heart of Palm fruit. The heart of palm is an interesting plant as this can grow to be a very large palm tree, or in its early stages standing approximately 2 m in height you can find the delicious heart of the palm tree. So palm trees take about 5 years to be able to go to a height that allows them to produce fruit, but only takes a couple months over a year to be able to harvest the heart of palm. Essentially you will take a small palm tree and you will cut it with a machete. You'll ever seem to cut all of the leaves off of the tree to expose the inside of the plant once you have gotten to the inside of the plant you should see a small colorless structure or something that is white. The colorless piece of the inside of the palm stands about 1 ft in length. This is found just above the roots of the plant. The inside part of the plant and the fruit is what is used to make the papacones, the palmetto, and the salveche. You are able to eat the inside of the palm tree. I tried a piece and it was certainly interesting, it had the texture of a carrot, it was white, had the crunch of a carrot, but lacked much flavor. One of the interesting things about the palm is the fact that they are really good reproducers asexually. This means that you do not have to replant the palm in order to be able to sustain your forms crop. The individual working in the fields has owned the field for 30 years and has never had to plant a new crop since day one. Because this is a small business all of the heart of Palm is harvested by hand. The individual who works here can produce about 500 heart of palms per month. This business is not super profitable, but it is something that she finds very dear to her heart. She takes all of her product and utilizes it in her kitchen. If she were to export her product, she would only receive about $0.16 per each plant that she ships out, which isn't very much. However, the heart of palm can be harvested all year round. Meaning she can keep her kitchen open for all to enjoy around the year. Finally the last interesting fact about the heart of Palm is that it has different rings. Similarly to a tree when you take a slice out of it you can see all of the different rings to see how much it grew. This is the same with the heart of the palm, they have little rings on the inside so you can see how much, and how quickly each of these palms grew. Oh Btw, the mihete has a name and it is Justin.
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