Hi there my Hivean friends and followers!
Originally, this was meant to be just a little relaxed travel piece after all those posts dedicated to the recent and current happenings on the chains but then, the @pinmapple team (former @steemitworldmap) let me know that they are actually hosting a very nice travel challenge here on Hive called Taking Mr. Pinmapple on a trip so I edited it to make this post my entry for the challenge :)
You can find out more about the challenge here.
I think there are just very few people who don´t like pineapples. This exotic tropical fruit is popular all over the world but because it requires very specific conditions to grow (mostly in terms of climate and soil), it can only be cultivated in certain regions. In Europe, for example, there is just one place where pineapples are produced for mass consumption and the place is called the Azores Islands. Yep, that is exactly where I am based right now :)
As a matter of fact, the local climate is not perfect for pineapple production either as it rains a lot in here and the temperatures are often not high enough for the fruit to flourish but the Azorean farmers are known to be very resourceful so they started this tradition of growing the pineapples in greenhouses here.
There are many pineapple greenhouses plantation on the Azores Islands and I visited one of them here in Ponta Delgada, the capital city of the Sao Miguel Island a couple of weeks ago so let me now show you a few photos that I took there.
And this is what the pineapples look like when they are ripe (or repining), harvested, boxed and ready to make someone happy :)
As you can see in the photo, the Azorean pineapples have these characteristic small crowns. They are also remarkably sweet and juicy. A significant part (I would even say a majority) of the harvested Azorean pineapples is exported to continental Europe, which is probably also why they are relatively expensive on the islands - they are often sold for around 4 EUR (USD) per kilo here. When living in Mexico, I remember buying pineapples for as little as some 10 Mexican Pesos (0.5 EUR or USD) per kilo so you have the idea...
I learned that the tradition of pineapple growing on the Azores Islands date back to the 19th century when it was a very lucrative business as there was not as much competition as there is now. Growing pineapples is not easy though as it can take up to 3 years for a single plant to produce a ripe fruit.
I was also surprised to find out that the locals actually call this fruit "ananas" and not "piña" (like the Spanish) because we also call this fruit "ananas" in my native Czech language that is otherwise completely different from the Portuguese.
I hope you enjoyed this little tour around a pineapple greenhouse plantation and that you learned something new about this popular fruit.
I think Mr. Pinmapple enjoyed this trip very much too because he got to meet so many friends over there :D He told me he particularly enjoyed the company of Mr. Pinsapple, Mr. Pindabble and Mr. Pindribble :D
I am really happy it was this pineapple piece that was my very first post to pin to @pinmapple :) Thank you guys for moving your amazing project over here to Hive.
This post was created by me for the Hive blockchain exclusively. All rights reserved.
