The Magic of Pineapples - Knowing More About Pineapples

Publisher Marketing: Table of Contents Introduction Different Varieties of Pineapples Growing Pineapples The Pineapple Fruit Mature Fruit Feeding your pineapple plant Testing for Ripeness Marketing Your Fruit Fresh How to Slice a Pineapple. Nutritive value of Pineapples Fruit Rings - Pineapples to Heal Protection against the summer Traditional Pineapple Dishes Oriental Pineapple Rice Hawaiian Salad Conclusion Author Bio Publisher Introduction My fascination with pineapples - Ananas comosus - started very early, especially because they were part and parcel of my childhood. Living in a tropical region means that you are going to have plenty of juicy tropical fruit to eat throughout the year, but pineapples were quite something else. Firstly you needed to get somebody to slice them, then you diced them, and then you either juiced the rich succulent pulp inside, or just ate them raw without juicing. When I was about 6 years old, an aunt who was living in the Philippines at that time, send me and my brother beautifully embroidered dresses made out of pineapple leaf fiber. These were a barong tagalog (Baro, for short and not Barong) for him and a Baro't Saya for me. Apart from that we were often sent beautiful pineapple fiber -Pina- clothes, which were so durable that they lasted me until I went to University and even after that. I liked these shirts very much, because of their very interesting history. According to a story I had heard, the Philippines were a distant colony of Spain. So the conquerors had to be different, had not they. They put out an edict. Only pure blood Spaniards could tuck in their shirts in their trousers. The conquered natives had to wear their shirts outside as a symbol of slavery. But the Philippinos were, as any brave race, very ingenuous. All these shirts were embroidered so beautifully that they became glorious works of art. So the Spaniards could have their unadorned tucked in shirts, but the natives wore their baros proudly. Alas, nearly 3 decades down the line, those embroidered Baros have disappeared from the Filipino markets. So sad to see a proud tradition die out. Contributor Bio:  Davidson, John John Davidson was born in Barrhead in Renfrewshire in 1857. He spent his childhood years in Greenock, and after working as a pupil-teacher and briefly attending Edinburgh University, taught in schools in Glasgow and Perth. In 1989 he moved to London where he made his living as a journalist and critic. Several dramas had been published while he was still in Scotland, but in the 1890s he turned to poetry, and published several collections which were very popular: In a Music-Hall (1891) and Ballads and Songs (1894) amongst them. These were poems which chronicled urban working class life, and his sense of outrage at the poverty of the ordinary man, as expressed by the much-anthologized 'Thirty Bob a Week'. At the beginning of the new century he moved away from the lyric and began writing in blank verse which incorporated much scientific language; this series of Testaments were not as successful as his earlier ballad style, though Hugh MacDiarmid was to pay tribute to Davidson's attempts to combine poetry with scientific ideas. Despite the early popularity of the poetry, financial difficulties constantly plagued Davidson; he had had no choice but to continue with the journalism he disliked in order to support his family and other dependents. Sadly the money worries, combined with ill-health and depression, drove him to committing suicide in 1909.