COSTA RICA NEWS (Examiner.com) – Our tour of the Corsicana Farm’s Organic Pineapple Plantation began in the fields with the pineapple pickers. We were allowed to walk down the rows and rows of pineapples for a close-up view of the steps from harvesting to preparing pineapples for your table.
The leaves on top of the pineapple, called the crown, are planted by hand. Each worker digs shallow holes to place the leaves and must plant thousands of leaves each day. It is difficult working in the fields because the sword- like leaves are very sharp.
The workers are required to wear heavy materials on their gloves, goggles and other protective clothing even in the hot summer. Our tour guide drove us back to the factory and we were ready to see the next steps in processing and packaging the pineapples. After donning hair nets, we were escorted inside to watch the conveyer belts transferring the pineapples as the workers sprayed, cut and prepared the pineapples.
Since I love to eat pineapple, the final stop tasting their juicy, sweet Costa Rican pineapple was a great finale. This tour was both informative and thrilling getting behind the scenes to see the inner workings of the plantation and factory. Now I appreciate all of the work that goes into the pineapples I enjoy.
The Corsicana pineapple plantation covers over 3,000 acres with harvests of 38 million pineapples a year. Corsicana is located at the foot of Mt. Poas, an active volcano, the second largest crater in the world. The plantation is next to La Virgin village, in central Costa Rica, near other volcanoes, waterfalls, exciting eco-adventures, and many attractions. Just two hours from the capital city, San Jose, you can visit Corsicana as a day tour from San Jose or make it one of the stops on a longer tour.
The Corsicana farm story began in Corsicana, Texas, in 1896, when the Collin Street Bakery opened. After successfully selling fruit cakes and bakery goods all those years, Collin Street decided to add the pineapple farm in Costa Rica, in 1991, to insure the highest quality of the pineapple and papaya in their baked goods.
Sources: Examiner.com; Fincacorsicana.com
