My family and I got to travel to Costa Rica from 26 Feb, 2009 to 2 Mar, 2009, courtesy of Collins Street Bakery in Corsicana, Texas. My wife won a drawing for a trip for four to their pineapple farm, Finca Corsicana, near La Virgen, Sarapiqui. It was one of the most memorable trips of my life.

We had an interpreter assigned to us for the entire trip, so we could ask questions and get explanations for just about everything. (My Spanish language skills suck!) The first morning there, we were treated to a private tour of the farm and I would like to pass along what we learned.

Pineapples are of the bromeliad family of plants. This is important because bromeliads grow differently from most other plants. First off, they have virtually no roots. The plants must be planted 8 - 12 inches apart so that the leaves interlock and they can help support each other. The furrows between the rows where the pineapples grow are about 15 - 18 inches deep for drainage. If a pineapple plant sits in water for an hour or longer, the plant starts to rot from the ground up. As members of the bromeliad family, pineapples cup water and nutrients in the pocket between leaf and main stem. All fertilizing and such has to be sprayed down from above, so the farm uses tractors with long (45') boom arms to apply bone meal, fish meal or minerals to the growing plants. No other chemicals or pesticides are allowed to be able to mantain their status as a certified organic farm. Because of the length of the boom arms, fields must be either 45 ft or 90 ft in width.

This is important because Finca Corsicana claims to be the largest single organic pineapple farm in the world. They occupy 2800 acres, about 60% of which is under cultivation at any one time. Costa Rica really has no seasons like most of us are used to. Temperatures, on average, run 68 to 85 F year-round. They may have a few colder nights, which will trigger some of the pineapple plants into ripening early and off-schedule.

Pineapples take 16 months to mature to the picking stage, with a second harvest 14 months after that. After 30 months, the old plant is dug up and chopped up for fertilizer, then the 'pups,' as the baby plants are called, are hand-planted and the process starts over.

Like on decorative bromeliads, the 'pups' are offshoots from the base of the parent plant which are cut off and allowed to dry for three days before being replanted to prevent root rot. The fields are plowed with very deep furrows, then covered in sheets of plastic to prevent weeds, and the 'pups' are inserted into the soil through a hole cut in the plastic sheet, eight to ten inches apart. (25 - 30 cm) Because the plants are so close together, they can plant 22,000 plants per acre. Without seasons to cause problems, they can plant and harvest year-round.

When the plants have been in the field about 15 months, they spray ethylene gas, the same thing that decaying fruit like apples give off, onto the pineapple plants, using the same sprayer attachment on the tractor. About 30 days later, it is harvest time.

It was discovered many years ago that the ethylene gas is the secret to having an entire field of pineapples ready for harvest at one time. Mr. Dole, founder of Dole fruits, was the discoverer of the process and started the first commercially viable pineapple farm on the island of Hawaii. The rest, as they say, is history.

Once the pineapples are ready for harvest, all fruit is hand-picked by grasping the top leaves and snapping the pineapple off the stalk. Workers are not allowed to handle the fruit itself for fear of bruising it. The pineapples are carefully packed in large open containers, about 500 per container, and then transported to the processing and sorting facility. Each container is submerged and water jets move the floating fruit onto a conveyer belt which transports the fruit into the processing and sorting building. Inside the building, normal food-handling precautions apply. Everyone must wear hairnets and workers wear aprons and food-grade gloves to prevent contamination. The pineapples are inspected and sorted by size for shipping. Once a stack of shipping boxes is full, the pineapples are quick-chilled to 45 F before being loaded into refrigerated trucks. They will maintain their freshness for up to three weeks if kept properly cooled.

Simple, right? Finca Corsicana employs 450 full-time workers to keep the operation going year-round. Meals are offered in an on-premises restaurant for any of the workers who are interested. Most workers live on the farm or close enough to walk or bicycle to work. Few own motor vehicles. Of those that do, most own motorcycles rather than cars. Many of the errands on the farm are run on four-wheelers. All of the full-time security staff have access to four-wheelers and patrol the perimeter to ward off poachers.

I was quite impressed with everyone who worked on the farm. All were pleasant and helpful. Those who spoke any English at all were almost eager to use what limited English they knew, if addressed. None of them were ever rude. I found this to be generally true as we traveled about the area.

I loved the climate and the general attitude of the people of Costa RIca and would love to visit the country again. If you are going to Costa Rica and find you will be in the area, book a tour at Finca Corsicana. You won't be disappointed, I can almost assure you.