the harvest is plentiful...

I'm 3 for 3.

One of my goals in coming to Hawaii was to eat (in many cases a whole lot) pineapple everyday. On the first day, the yellow delight came in the form of a pre-dinner salad. The second day brought an amazingly fruitful excursion to the Dole plantation.

Yep - Dole's the place where they grow copious amounts of pineapple. On our train ride throughout the crops, we learned that a pineapple is a labor-intensive crop that is planted and harvested entirely by hand. Even in the summertime, the workers must wear thick long sleeves, pants and gloves to protect themselves from the plant's sharp leaves. Here's the kicker, each pineapple plant takes 20 months before it produces its firstfruit. Then another 14-16 months before it turns out another. For those of you unskilled in math, that's a whopping total of 2 fruits per plant every three years.

This begs the question: Is the fruit harvest worth the work? or the wait?

Tonight we capped off our first night in Kauai by dining at the locally owned Pizzeta. The "Kauaiian" proved to be a deliciously fresh take on the "Hawaiian" pizza I enjoy so much. Of course, this made an excellent addition to the sunset over the palm trees.

Thus three days into vacation and three months into my job, I dare say that though the workers are few and the labor may be long and arduous, the fruit is definately worth the work needed for the harvest.