Pineapples & Bananas

Growing Pineapples

Even as a kid growing up in Ohio, we cut the top off of a store-bought pineapple and tried to grow it. It'll actually work too, but it will have to be a potted plant brought indoors if you live in frost country, and may take two years to produce a fruit. If you live here in Florida, you might find discarded plants along the road on “yard waste” pick up day. That's how Lady Sally got her first half dozen plants – from a neighbor who was “thinning the herd” so to speak.

Mature pineapple plant with fruit nearly ready to harvest

Don't put that sliced-off pineapple top in a glass of water the way we did when we were kids. After few days it'll really start to stink – probably before any roots form.

I don't know where people get the idea that everything needs to be started in a glass of water. With pineapple (and many other plants)  it's better to let it cure or dry just sitting on the kitchen counter for a day or two before planting. Make sure you remove all the fruit flesh, and all the small bottom leaves. Just pull them off.

Actual planting is dirt simple. Sorry about the pun... Poke a hole a couple inches deep in the ground or in a an 18” diameter pot, and insert your pineapple top. Push the soil back in and firm it around the base so the pineapple sits straight and doesn't fall over. If the soil is dry give it some water.

Newly planted pineapple top

And that's it. Given sufficient light and temperatures above say 50F, and it'll grow.

If you have more than one start, plant them about a foot apart. The leaves can get as much as a yard wide and high, but the roots don't need much room, and close spacing will help cut down on weeds and weeding (an otherwise painful exercise and the leaf tips are needle sharp).

If you're going to pot your pineapple top, choose a pot about 18" in diameter; but it only has to be about 6" deep.  Choose a pot with good drainage.  In spite of being a tropical species, and loving loisture, pineapple do not like soggy roots.  Choose a sandy, good draining soil.

Pineapple plants can fruit a total of three times, although not all plants are capable of producing multiple fruit and some plants may fruit more. Indoor potted plants are more likely to produce only one or two fruits because they do not always receive the optimum conditions necessary for thorough fruiting. Each flower stalk produced by a plant has the capability of setting fruit. The first fruit typically grows largest, with subsequent smaller fruits produced later.

The mother plant, or the first plant grown, produces a single fruit from the center of the crown of leaves. A bright red flower of leaves appears about two weeks before the fruit begins to form.

Pineapple flower

The time from initial planting to fruit setting varies. Pineapples grown outside in the optimum climate can set their first fruit in as little as 16 months. Indoor plants may take 16 to 24 months, or longer, before they flower and form their first fruits. If mother plant isn't setting a fruit, you can force flowering by setting pieces of apple around the center of the pineapple. Ethylene gas, produced by the cut apple, forces flowering.

Unripe pineapples are, of course, green; and if eaten have been known to cause severe gastro-distress. A partially ripe cut pineapple can be final ripened by turning it on its head for a week or ten days. Putting it in a brown paper bag, as you would other fruit, does NOT work.

Quick Banana “Bread”

Bananas are another locally grown fruit here in Southwest Florida. The bunch pictured is growing along the creek at the back of Lady Sally's property. Notice the flower, which is itself edible, still on the stem. We see then for sale at the local Hispanic farmer's market.  The blossoms are used in a variety of Indian and Asian dishes.

Visually you can tell this bunch is not ready for harvest. When approaching maturity, the hands of bananas will “lay down” so that the individual fruit are nearly horizontal. Then the entire stem is cut and placed inside a plastic bag and hung outdoors for a week or so, where it will ripen in the concentrated gas produced by cutting the stem.

Ripening bananas

Here's a quick and easy (and pretty healthy) banana “bread” that's best made from nearly over-ripe bananas – the ones with the nearly black skins.  No added sugar, for those of you watching such things in your diet.  Gluten free too.  Easily made lactose free.  All that good marketing hype.

3 ripe Bananas, peeled

1/3 cup Applesauce (no sugar added variety)

2 cups Rolled Oats

¼ cup Almond or real Milk

½ cup Raisins or other dried fruit

1 tsp Vanilla extract

1 tsp ground Cinnamon

Mash everything together in a bowl until well mixed. Turn out into a 9x9 baking dish or 9x4 loaf pan. Bake at 350F for 20-30 minutes.  Makes a dense, chewy 'bar' that would be a great lunch bag addition.

Banana Quick Bread

Chef Ken's Five Spice Blend

Made another batch of Butternut Squash Soup for Lady Sally to take for lunches this week:  

1 Butternut Squash

1 large Onion

1 large Apple, not a Granny Smith or Red Delicious

My Five Spice

6 whole Allspice berries

6 whole Cloves

1 tsp fresh ground Cinnamon

1 whole Star Anise pod

1 tsp ground Cardamon (I prefer Black Cardamon for this dish, but Green works well too)

Dice the onion and start saute-ing it in a deep pot.  Skin the squash and chop it fine. Pre-cook in the microwave for 8-10 minutes then toss in with the onion.  Likewise chop the apple, but don't bother trying to peel it.  Add the spice blend and about 6 cups of water.  Cook for 1-2 hours.  Puree or mash if desired.

Mamey & Longan Update

Lady Sally and I went to the Ortiz Road Farmer's Market, a wonderful, mostly Hispanic run collection of vegetable vendors, and and others.  We found lots of longans and mamey for $2 per pound.  We bought two pounds of each.  I'll be making Longan Jam and Mamey smoothies later in the week.