Conference turris::cooks

To really minimize the waste, you need a small knife and LOTS of time.  Then, 
you peel off a thin layer of skin and individually carve out each "eye".  Any
faster technique causes some higher degree of waste.  The pineapple widgets you
can buy cause maximal waste (not counting just tossing the whole thing), but 
yield edible fruit in the shortest amount of time.  I personally have opted for
the true yuppie solution:  I buy prepeeled pineapples at Idylwilde Farms.

This is probably the wrong place to ask how to grow a pineapple but...

When my husband and I were in Hawaii on our honeymoon we picked up a pamphlet
on how to grow a pineapple from a pinapple that you had just eaten.  
Unfortunately it got thrown away and I don't remember anything about the 
technique (other than it took a long time).

Does anyone know how to do this?

-- Nisha

    All I did was cut off the top of the pineapple and literally just set
    it in some soil.  That was last spring and the pineapple plant is
    getting hugh!
    
    I kept it in a sunny window over the winter that gets a lot of sunlight
    so the plant would have warmth.  And, of course I watered it. But
    that's it.

    .3 is right - they are real easy to grow.  But I don't have one
    anymore: they are not what you might call a friendly houseplant if you
    live in a small place - the spines on the leaves are REAL prickly!  But
    it is interesting to grow one, especially if you have kids - right up
    there with growing an avacado pit (which makes a larger but friendlier
    houseplant).
    
    /Charlotte

    ...uuummmm, how long does it take to get a real honest-to-goodness
    pineapple? One 'season'?  Do you get this TREE growing in your window
    sill? How much space do you need? 
    
    This could be fun!
    beth

  Depends on the variety of pineapple and the growing conditions, but it
  takes several years before the plant develops fruit. My experience has
  been that in the Northeastern US, we don't get enough hours of
  sunlight to yield fruit. When the plant reaches a modest size, it
  stops growing, and never develops fruit. If you have a near-perfect
  place to grow it, you might get fruit, but on average, it probably
  won't. And if it did, it probably wouldn't be very tasty.

  Also, I'm not sure that the soil conditions are very good here. In
  places I've seen them growing, the soil is a bright red clay, not the
  acid sandy soil we have in New England.

  The leaves are downright dangerous. They can give you a nasty stab or
  take out an eye.

  A mature plant can be seven or eight feet tall (maybe more), and as
  wide. You'll need a big windowsill!

    Are we talking about the same plant as I saw growing in Hawaii when I
    was a kid? Pineapples do not grow on trees, but on bushes. The bushes
    in the Pineapple fields aren't much higher than waist high. I don't
    think that a pineapple is self fertilizing, although I do think that
    they have only one sex. So, in order to have a fruit you would have to
    fertilize it. Looks like this note should be shifted over to the
    gardening notes file...
    
    	Marty Sasaki

    re:  .2
    
    Grow a pineapple from a pineapple that you had just eaten?!!  I don't
    think that would be possible, as you already ate the pineapple.  And if
    it is possible, I don't think I want to hear how you plant it.  Y' know
    what I mean?
    
    
    Steve

  Re .last, unless you eat the top of the pineapple, there's no problem
  growing a plant from one you've just eaten. It's the top that you put
  in soil to start a new plant.

  Re Marty: I grew up in Hawaii, too (for a while, anyway -- lived in
  Manoa and went to public school there, where I was the only non-Asian
  kid in my class). You're right that many plants are about waist-high,
  but actually, the fruit is at about that level. The tops of the
  tallest leaves are at around eye level. And some of the big ones were
  easily taller than an adult. Next time you're on Oahu, take a look at
  some of the plants right outside the Dole tourist stand in the middle
  of the island! Anyway, we tried to grow some, but our yard didn't have
  enough sun, and they never got very big. So I don't have much hope for
  getting fruit in MetroWest.

    Pineapples are a type of plant called a Bromeliad.  These plants
    produce new plants from offshoots, not from seeds.  Once a plant
    produces a fruit (pineapple in this case) it dies.  The Leaves on the
    top of the pineapple are actually the start of another new plant. 
    That's why you can plant it and start this whole cycle over again,
    and over again, and over again.....  

    Re .10,
    Bromelaid: A marmelaid made from Bromo-Seltzer. Good for ulcers caused
    by eating pineapples. 8^)
    Randy
    

    Back to the original question on extracting fruit from fresh pineapples
    ... I picked up a neat tip from Joy of Cooking for getting out the
    "eyes." After peeling the pineapple with a sharp knife -- we trimmed
    about 1/4" thickness off the entire fruit -- you'll have numerous eyes.
    If you study the pattern, you'll notice that the eyes spiral in fairly
    straight rows up the sides of the fruit. Joy of Cooking suggests
    making knife cuts along these rows to remove them. Two cuts, forming a 
    shallow "V" let you remove rows of the eyes. 
    
    I found this method much less tedious that individual eye removal.
    And the resulting fruit has a neat design in the skin!    
    
            

    By the way, if you do decide to peel it the manual way, it helps with
    the clean up if you use a meat carving board.  I'm typing of the ones
    with the gutter all around and a spot for the juices to gather.  A
    really ripe pineapple will give off a lot of juice during the peeling
    and de-eyeing.

This seems as good a place as any to ask this question.....

I have an old recipe of my grandmother's that calls for a "Number 2" can
of crushed pineapple.  Anyone know what size can that means?

    Well a number 303 was a little larger than a can of Campbell's soup,
    sort of the size of the larger soup cans.  I think a number 2 can was
    about the size of the large size Italian whole or crushed tomato cans
    like you use to make spaghetti sauce.
    
    I think I have that right, it's been a long time.
    
    Mary Lou

According to a list I came across some years ago........

A #2 can = 1 lb. 4 oz.   or 1 pt. 2 oz.   or 2-1/2 cups

A 303 can = 16-17 oz.   or 2 cups 

Hope this is of some help.

Linda

It DOES help...now I don't have to guess how much to use.

Thanks Linda and Mary Lou!


Jayne