Good as gold

Before he moved to Maui five years ago, Steve Potter had never eaten fresh pineapple, nor did he know much about it. "I occasionally had pineapple upside-down cake, but that was it," said the Denver native.

When Maui Pineapple Co. hired Potter to lead its tour in 2007, he quickly became an aficionado. "My boss gave me six pineapples and told me to go home and practice cutting them," he recalled. "Because mature pineapples weigh 3 to 5 pounds, that can be tricky. I got in the bathtub and experimented there, so I wouldn’t make a mess in the kitchen."

Today, twice a day, five days a week, Potter deftly picks and cuts pineapples in the fields for visitors to sample. He’s now the guide for the Maui Pineapple Tour, which was launched in March 2011 by Maui Gold Pineapple Co.

Founded in January 2010, a month after Maui Pineapple Co. shut down just shy of its 100th birthday, Maui Gold grows a variety of pineapple known for its sweet flavor, low acidity and juicy flesh. Production goes on year-round at the company’s plantation in Haliimaile, at the 1,100-foot elevation of Haleakala Volcano.

On the 90-minute tour, visitors learn about the history of pineapple, its growing cycle, and the environmentally sustainable cultivation techniques and processing steps for the Maui Gold pineapple, which was developed over 50 years of crossbreeding.

The tour begins at the plant, where harvested pineapples are first immersed in water to weed out the ones that sink (this means they either are overly ripe or have a hole). Next, they go through a high-pressure, ozone-based rinse, which protects them against mold. The process is nontoxic, allowing the water to be recycled. Then they’re sprayed with a vegetable wax that extends shelf life and gives them a nice sheen.

Workers pack the fruit by size. Boxes are marked with a number (five, six or seven), indicating how many pineapples they hold. The fruit is sold by the box, not by the pound.

The 5,000-square-foot refrigerator beside the plant stores boxed pineapples for no more than a few days before they’re shipped. "We don’t want the fruit to sit over the weekend while it’s in transit, so we only ship orders on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday," Potter said. "Local retailers receive our pineapples within three days of picking."

From the plant, it’s a five-minute drive to the fields. In the midst of 1,500 gold-and-green acres, visitors learn about the history of pineapple and the company, see Maui Gold in various stages of growth, and find out how it’s planted, nurtured and harvested.

The fruit’s crown is one source of seed. "An air compressor shoots the crowns over the field," Potter said. "Workers walk down the rows with a spade. An X marks the spots where they’re supposed to plant the crowns. They dig holes there, put in the crowns and pat soil around them. The fastest workers can plant 7,000 pineapples in one day."

Pineapple needs abundant sunshine to grow; its ideal environment is within 1,500 miles of the equator. Hawaii is 1,300 miles north of that point.

"You also have to have well-drained soil that’s rich in nutrients like our volcanic soil," Potter said. "Daytime temperatures should be between 70 and 90 degrees, and they can’t drop below 50 degrees at night. Everything pineapple needs is right here in Hawaii."

Workers harvest Maui Gold at the peak of ripeness. Pineapples with mostly green skins are shipped to the mainland (they have 85 percent sugar, 15 percent acid and a shelf life of three weeks). Those with half green/half yellow skins are designated for markets in Hawaii (they have 90 percent sugar, 10 percent acid and keep seven to 10 days).

Containing more than 95 percent sugar, the mostly yellow Maui Golds are the sweetest, but since they last only a day or two after picking, they aren’t sold to stores. Visitors get to taste all three kinds in the fields, right after Potter picks and cuts them.

"The acid is what gives pineapple its kick, so some people think the mostly yellows are bland while others think they taste like candy," he said. "The crowns are kept for planting and the fruit goes to Tedeschi Vineyards in Upcountry Maui, which makes three types of pineapple wine from them."

According to Potter, being in the fields is the highlight of the tour for many participants. "Imagine eating as much just-picked pineapple as you want, right next to where it’s growing," he said. "It’s a wonderful only-in-Hawaii experience."

Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi is a Honolulu-based freelance writer whose travel features for the Star-Advertiser have won several Society of American Travel Writers awards.