Growing Family

When I first moved back to Hawaii, I started my pineapple growing experiment, which has been fruitful. This winter, I was overjoyed to see that the original pineapple stem was growing yet another pineapple baby! The flowers are so colorful and lovely, and they take a few months to grow and ripen, so it is quite a pleasure to watch their development.

After a busy beginning to the summer, being away traveling, I came home to see what looked like a fully grown pineapple on my plant. I had planned to wait until it was yellow and fully ripe to pick it, but while I was watering the plant, I brushed up against the fruit and it fell off! I took that as a sign that it was ready to ripen in the kitchen.

The fruit did ripen beautifully within just a few days, and it is so delicious. The taste can't be compared to store bought fruits, and let's face it, even those are yummy in Hawaii! Of course I had to plant the stem in the garden. Now I have three pineapples growing, though no more fruits are on at the moment. Look at how big the original stem is now! It probably won't be long until we see more offspring.