I stopped buying pineapples in the store more than a decade ago. Not because I don’t love pineapples, but because I got tired of wasting my money for the same dissatisfactory experience😕.

On rare occasion, my store bought pineapples ripened to hardly more than a lightly pineapple flavored sharp, vinegar taste🫢. Most often, they wouldn’t ripen at all & instead rotted to a mushy texture with a foul, bitter taste🤢. Changing shops or purchase season did nothing for my experience. So- like many things for me these days- I opted out✌🏾. They could keep the nasty pineapples.

That’s not to say that I haven’t eaten pineapples in more than a decade. During my frequent travels to Mexico & South America I would gorge myself on my fill of juicy, sweet, fragrant pineapples😊. I knew from these experiences what pineapple was supposed to taste like. I was unwilling to settle when stateside.

As one might expect, one of the first things to be established on the farm was a pineapple patch. I’ve come a long way from where I started with about 8 pineapple plants 3 years ago. Year over year, I will continue to add pineapple plants until I reach my annual harvest goal or run out of growing space- whichever happens first😅💯. The good news is I no longer need a passport to be able to eat the quality of pineapple fruit that I deserve. I just have to grow it for myself.

Well…I use the word ‘grow’ loosely. I don’t actually do anything except put the pineapple plant into the ground, then forget about it until I see a fruit pop up😆. That counts for something, right?