Jax Stumpes: 12. Pineapple Plantation Tour (5/30/07)

Wednesday, May 30, 2007
At 2:15 PM we took our tour bus the short distance to the Collin Street Bakery-owned pineapple plantation,

Iron pineapple

Collin Street Bakery

and were dropped off at the very clean and modern open-air employees cafeteria.

Some women were folding in the spiky leaves on whole pineapples, and we were to learn why later.

Folded leaves

We boarded a special tractor-drawn wagon and our guide, Michael, introduced himself and the driver, Danny.

Michael & Danny

Funny how they all have American names!

Michael stressed the progressiveness of this company, saying that pregnant women are taken out of the fields and allowed to do lighter work with the ornamental pineapple plants.

Baby ornamental plants

That now 60% of the fields are organic and in the next couple years they hope to be 100% organic.

Regular field

Organic field

And out of all the land (600 acres) owned by the company, 35% has been left to nature.

Left to nature

The organic fields were covered in plastic and planted with the crowns of pineapples rejected for export, planted in slits cut in the plastic.

Michael holding a pineapple crown

The plastic makes the use of insecticides and herbicides for weeds unnecessary. Pineapples cannot be exported if weed seeds are found in the crowns. Each crown may produce 2-3 pineapples before the size and quality deteriorate.

Once the plants have served their usefulness, they are pulled

Pulling out old plants

and composted, and the plastic is removed and recycled.

Removing the plastic

The fields are allowed to remain fallow for a time.

Fallow field

The field is then cleared,

Cleared field

drainage ditches are dug,

Drainage ditch

the field covered with plastic, and the cycle begins again.

Covered in plastic

At harvest time, a specialist goes to measure the sugar content of a sampling of pineapples. When the sugar content is appropriate, then the hand-picking begins. Some fields are arranged with roads between them in intervals to allow a machine to cut the tops of the pineapples at a certain height. Any pineapple with a crown below this level is eligible to be picked. Workers are looking for pineapples with straight crowns of a certain height. Because they are picking by hand, they can leave those pineapples that aren't quite ready, and pick them at a later time. One field could be picked over up to 10 times.

Our tractor drove over large mud puddles.

Mud puddle coming up

Mud puddle seen through floor of wagon

The workers are given snake boots and gloves to work in the fields of spiky-leaved pineapple plants. Venomous snakes are present. Plus it is hot and humid, and there are a lot of bugs. But the workers are paid well. Many workers are immigrants from Nicaragua ("Nicas") who are willing to do this "dirty work." The company deposits their pay in bank accounts to insure that the families benefit. Special buses shuttle the workers from the areas where they live.

Workers' transport

Danny stopped the tractor and hopped down to pull up a whole pineapple plant,

Danny pulls up a plant

which Michael used to tell us the parts of the plant.

Whole pineapple plant

Michael kept calling the body of the pineapple the "physical".

The prime pineapple grows on the main stem, slips grow from the fruit or stem and are usually removed, and suckers grow from the leaf joint or ground level and may be allowed to grow the second or third pineapple.