Pineapples, Pineapples, and More Pineapples!

Welcome to Dole, the biggest company to sell the second most popular fruit in the world (bananas are number one), which also comes in a delicious ice cream form known as Dole Whip. You know what I’m talking about…. pineapples of course!

James Drummond Dole came to Hawaii in 1899 with a Harvard degree in business and agriculture. He was the first person to recognize the potential of pineapple as an international product, and was nicknamed the “Pineapple King”.

Dole started a cannery in Honolulu in 1901 and was able to send canned pineapple all around America. His company grew so big, he eventually bought the Hawaiian island of Lana’i and turned it into the world’s largest pineapple plantation made up of 20,000 acres.

For the next 70 years, 75% of the world’s pineapple came from this island, so it was known as the “Pineapple Island”. In the 1930’s, Hawaii was the pineapple capital of the world and the fruit selling was the second largest industry in Hawaii. At this time, Dole was producing over 200,000 tons of pineapples every year. There were other companies which sold pineapple, but none were as big as Dole.  Today, there are many types of pineapple grown on the plantation such as Ruby, Queen, Pernambuco, Malaya, Philippines, Pakse, and Sugarloaf.  In Hawaii, the only pineapples grown for commercial use are Smooth Cayene and its clones.

We went outside to take a ride on the Pineapple Express. This was a small train which takes people around the plantation to see farming equipment used for harvesting pineapples. There is an excellent narration playing during the ride so everyone can understand what they are seeing.

The front of one of the two trains

The Pineapple Express sign

A piece of old farming machinery

Another really fun activity was the Pineapple Maze. This is a big maze made of tall bushes in the shape of a pineapple. It won the Guinness World Record for the largest in the world in 2008. To complete this, we had to go around the maze and collect 8 stamps on a card. This reminded me of the corn maze at a farm close to our house where you have to collect stamps from boards shaped like cows.

Our visit to the Dole plantation was a lot of fun. Before we entered the building, we had the chance to pick an oyster to see if there was a pearl inside which we would be able to keep. Zoe and I found pink pearls and Anastasia found a white one. Although this has nothing to do with pineapples, it was really neat and reminded me of the pearl farm in Ha Long Bay in Vietnam.

Zoe choosing an oyster

Using tongs to choose an oyster

Zoe’s pearl

Me choosing an oyster

The oyster on a pineapple dish

My opened oyster

Anastasia choosing an oyster

Different types of pearls

Fun Facts About Pineapple

– It takes 20 months to grow the first pineapple in a crop and 14-15 months for the second

– The crown (green leafy part) is planted because it contains the pineapple seeds

– Pineapples are planted all throughout the year

– Over 28,000 pineapples can be planted in only one acre

It was a lot of fun visiting the Dole pineapple plantation. I have learned so many things about one of my favourite fruits.  The plantation was just like the apple orchard in Australia but with tropical fruit.  Maybe growing pineapples in the backyard is another project for us? 🙂