Interesting Facts About Pineapple That You Should Know

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Pineapple is a delicious tropical fruit that belongs to the Bromeliaceae family. The fruit comes from a perennial drought-tolerant plant that grows up to 8 feet in height and spreads around a 3-4 radius cover. The plant is short with stout stems with rosette waxy long needle like tips. Each plant tends to bear several long oval cylinde, like fruits between the months of March and June. Each fruit has a rough and tough scaly rind with the brownish yellowish green color to it. When you cut away the rind, you get a yellowish fibrous sweet flesh that you can eat.

If you want to learn more facts about pineapple, keep on reading.

Once harvested, pineapples don’t continue to ripen.  

Pineapple is ready for harvesting about 3-years from the time it was planted. For this reason alone pineapple can be a bit costly when you purchase it from the grocery store or a fresh farm stand from a farmers market. Sometimes pineapples are cheaper when you are able to harvest them yourself from a pineapple plantation if you are lucky enough to live near one. However, you must harvest them when they are ripened because if you harvest them too soon they do not have the ability to ripen on their own.

Pineapple plants have pretty flowers.

Pineapple plants do produce flowers just before producing their fruit. The colors of the flowers are lavender and bright red. What is even more interesting is that berries grow all around the pineapple fruit while it is growing and maturing, which is why the pineapple fruit itself is actually a bunch of fruitlets fused together to make up one entire fruit.

Where did pineapples get their name?

Pineapples got their name because European explorers when they first discovered them said the fruit resembled pinecones, but tasted like sweet apples. This is where they came up with the name of pineapples. However, this fruits look nothing like apples and do not have a similar texture as them. In fact, the fruit is yellow and fibrous in texture with a lot of juiciness.

How do pineapples grow?

Pineapples grow in dry drought like soil in rows. Some people say that as the fruits grow beneath the ground they appear as palm treetops, but other say they simply look like buried pineapples.

Can you grow your own pineapples?

One of the coolest things about pineapple tops is you can cut them off and plant them into the soil. However, a fruit will not produce, but you will have a neat indoor plant to set near the window to help add some nature décor to your home.

How long does a ripe pineapple stay fresh?

A ripe pineapple only stays fresh for about 2 to 3 days, which is why it is essential you eat it up as soon as possible. Doing so will also ensure it has a pleasurable sweet apple pine flavor and is slightly firm in texture making it easier to eat. Once pineapples begin to mush and turn brown it will be unsatisfying to eat unless you make pineapple upside down cake with it or a smoothie.

What is the best way to prepare a pineapple?

The best way to prepare a pineapple is by using a special gadget known as a pineapple cutter. You can kind these gadgets at your local kitchen shops or even in your local grocery store in the kitchen gadget isle. Some online kitchen stores even carry them.

Resources:

whfoods.com

nutrition-and-you.com

huffingtonpost.com

Beverly Entin