Pineapple Progress

If you follow my blog entries, you'll know that I have spent the past several weeks trying to get some images of workers harvesting Pineapples.

Well, today I had a little success and I also learned a few things.

West of where I live is mountainous, and there are thousands of acres growing Pineapples. Trying to find that one field where they are harvesting, at one particular moment, has proved elusive.

I was very lucky today as I stumbled across two fields being harvested. I went back to one location to take a few shots to stitch into a panorama and, whilst taking those, spied some nearby activity.

The sky was very 'dirty' today but I had five minutes of good light to get my panorama shots. Hopefully, next time the light will be better.


Pineapple country. My five minutes of good light. This is from two images stitched, and with some HDR applied.

Whilst I was there, I stumbled upon a crew harvesting Pineapples. In fact, I saw the activity as I panned around for the last shot I took for the panorama.

My Thai is passable and I met a man today who explained to me the various stages of Pineapple growth. That was the first thing I learned.

I had no idea that they started out very red/purple and changed through to green, and finally yellow/orange.

The second was that he explained to me that it takes five months to grow a Pineapple. I had thought that they harvested one field, at one time. Not so. Mature Pineapples are harvested as they become ready.

Anyway, the next few images show the growth stages of a Pineapple. They start out in the centre of the plant and, when very young, have all kinds of amazing red and purple colours, until eventually turning yellow/orange when they mature.

As I mentioned, I was very lucky today as I came across not one, but two crews harvesting.

Another thing I learned today is that Pineapples are not cut, they are 'picked' with a simple twisting action and the ends are then trimmed with a machete. I had always thought they were cut.

The next few images show folk harvesting.

What alerted me to the harvest was that I spied this activity in one field. I could not see anyone harvesting, as they were hidden by the truck, but I wandered over to get a closer look.

This lady's job was to sit atop the truck and carefully load the Pineapples evenly.

After I left the fields, I came across one of the many small sheds where the Pineapples are cut and bagged.

Freshly cut Pineapples. As I was taking the images, I was fed many pieces of Pineapple. I was even given some large Pineapples to take home.

I had to decline the latter as there is no way I could carry them on the 'bike the 50 odd kilometres home. Maybe next time I'll take a carry bag with me.

That's all. Hope you enjoyed.

Cheers


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