Ponta Delgada

We arrived in Ponta Delgada early and were cleared for going out around 9:30 am. One of the security guards recognized us from our Alaska trip which was neat. We tried to find a normal taxi but all of them wanted to be tour guide and were very expensive. So we headed off on our own to find the pineapple farm. Thank you Google maps!

The actual green houses were open so we saw pineapples in various stages of growth…
The production cycle of the Azorean Pineapple begins with the extraction and trimming of the rhizome, "toca" from the plants that produced good fruit in the previous harvest. This first stage, carried out in a plastic green-house, takes 4 to 6 months.

About two years after the planting of the rhizome, and when the pineapple fruitlets are full and show at least 25% orange pigmentation, the Azorean Pineapple s ready to be harvested. From the harvested fruit, the rhizome is removed and used to generate new plants, thus beginning once again the production cycle of the Azorean pineapple.
They’ve been using this technique since the 1800s with the same plants.

We stopped at the pineapple bar and had pineapple sorbet. Then we headed back to the ship.Read more