During these COVID times, when everyone is at home, active discussions are going on about the need for Kerala to work towards food self-sufficiency. It is necessary because right now all the food we consume is transported to Kerala via goods lorries. What if this system comes to an end? Such a worry has made our society consider vegetable cultivation seriously. That will certainly be a good practice because it will also help us experience the authentic taste of vegetables.
Take the case of pineapples. Once the fruit appears, civet cats, rats and other creatures begin to nibble it. To avoid the problem, we take a large-sized plastic jar, remove the lid, and place it upside down on each fruit. But when farmers grow pineapples on a large scale, they use lots of pesticides, like Furadan. Besides, after the harvest, these fruits lie piled up at the farms before being taken to markets. We purchase and usually eat them a couple of days later. What happens in the process? The fruits are plucked when they turn ripe and yellow. But the longer they sit, they may continue to look ripe, but will shrivel within.
If, on the other hand, if we pluck a ripe one from our garden, even when it looks green, it will be golden yellow inside and very sweet to taste. I shall show you an instance of this. When you see a fruit plucked from here, and chopped, you will see what I mean. Look at the juice dripping out of it. This is the sap of the plant. If we purchase this pineapple from a market after four days, the water will have dried up. It may still taste sweet but that is not the real flavour. To experience the authentic taste, you must have it fresh from the plant.
For that, you must grow it in your garden. It doesn’t require much effort. Take a bucket, fill it with soil, plant the sapling and grow it on your terrace. A great advantage of the pineapple plant is that new shoots will sprout on their own, and they will put out fruits. My request to you is that you should give it a try. Take a pot, fill it with protein mixture and pluck the crest off the pineapple you bought from the market, and plant it. In eight to nine months, it will bear fruit. Just cover it to ensure it is not eaten by any creature. When it becomes ripe, pluck and eat it immediately, and you will realize that the taste is indescribable, very different from what you have had in a hotel or elsewhere. Try it out.