Pineapples taste sweet but are difficult to cultivate. What does their future development hold?

The Golden Diamond pineapple is delicate and sweet, no question about it, but growing high-quality pineapples is no simple matter. A-Yuan of Longquan Village, Neipu Township, Pingtung County, persisted in growing pineapples for ten years despite his family's doubts and even opposition, and out of it grew pride and confidence. He and his wife have also promoted a free pineapple farm "treasure hunt" in recent years, giving more people the chance to go into the fields, harvest pineapples, and experience both the growth of crops and the hard work of farmers.

Yet, faced with fragmented farmland that is hard to acquire, or the predicament of finally cultivating a good plot only to have the landlord want to sell it after just two years of planting, A-Yuan always feels uneasy at heart. He said, "All I can do is make a wish now and then, hoping to meet someone else who will rent out land, and beg the heavens to let me have more land where I can grow pineapples with peace of mind."

Farmer A-Yuan peels a "pineapple lollipop" to let everyone taste the deliciousness
On May 24, before five in the morning, the sky was already bright, but there was no grand display of glowing sunrise in the east. In a field beside the Liangshan Tunnel in Majia Township, Pingtung County, two young farmers were harvesting pineapples. One of them, with short close-cropped hair and wearing a green shirt printed with "Pineapple Yuan," came over grinning. His first words of greeting: "Do you want to eat pineapple? I'll peel you a pineapple lollipop."

What is a pineapple lollipop? It turns out you slice off the pointed leaves of the pineapple crown, then peel away the rough skin clean. In less than a minute, a rough pineapple becomes a lollipop. Don't underestimate this gesture, because when some visitors to the production area are invited by farmers to taste a sample, they sometimes feel a bit embarrassed, but as soon as they hear this cute name, everyone happily agrees.

This young farmer is named Li Junyuan, known as "A-Yuan." He is not tall or strongly built, nor is he handsome, but his smile is full and his manner is warm, and when he speaks he is completely straightforward. He does not use words to say how delicious his pineapples are; instead he puts the pineapple into the customer's mouth and lets the customer do the rating. "Our workload is heavy, and we constantly have to explain things to customers, so we get really tired. Sometimes we're so busy we're about to go crazy, so why not just peel one for the customer to eat?" As he said this, A-Yuan finished peeling another pineapple lollipop.

A-Yuan is 35 years old this year, a native of Longquan Village, Neipu Township, Pingtung County, and a graduate of the Department of Aquaculture at National Pingtung University of Science and Technology. In his sophomore year, he found classmates to work part-time in a pineapple field together, learning to fertilize and bag the fruit, and earning some pocket money along the way. Unexpectedly, because of this, he began to take an interest in farming. A-Yuan said, "I was discharged from military service on October 1 of the 98th year of the Republic (2009). As soon as I got home, I went straight into the field to grow pineapples, and it has been exactly ten years now."

Pineapple leaves are hard and full of sharp spines, yet the farmer gladly endures it

By nearly seven o'clock the harvest was done, and a small truck was already fully loaded. A-Yuan hurried to drive the pineapples home. Not long after the truck was parked, his father Li Kechang also drove another small truck full of pineapples into the warehouse. Father and son, one truck each, were preparing to begin their separate grading and packing work.

At the mention of her son farming, his mother Lin Alan couldn't help but cut in before his father: "I used to be very opposed to him farming. I told him, if I had known earlier that he would farm, I might as well have let him stop at high school. Why send him all the way to National Pingtung University of Science and Technology?" But a mother is always a mother, and her expression instantly turned gentle again. "Actually, I know he works very hard, he has never made me worry, and he takes good care of his wife and three children too."

Farming is inherently hard work, and growing pineapples is no exception. Sorting seedlings, planting, fertilizing, applying treatments, bagging, weeding, none of it can be done carelessly, and pineapple leaves are very hard with many sharp spines, so one often gets pricked. But A-Yuan doesn't mind. He says growing pineapples is quite easy, "Just do what needs to be done!"

Professional "human fruit-sorting machine" sneaks a taste of pineapple; even mice have a sense of honor
For A-Yuan's family, growing pineapples is how they make a living. He and his father both use conventional farming methods; the difference between them lies in the type and ratio of fertilizer. Father and son each do their own thing, caring about each other but not interfering, and trying to avoid too much discussion to prevent unpleasantness from differing views.

But father Li Kechang feels very proud of his son. He said, "I take the produce-market domestic sales route; he grows for the export sales channel. I do mine, he does his. I'm the amateur, he's the professional." That last sentence is the key from the father.

Listening to his parents talk about all this, A-Yuan still focused on selecting pineapples. His aspiration for himself is, "I don't seek to be the biggest pineapple farmer in Taiwan, China, but I want to be the model student of pineapple home delivery." He said, "I am a human fruit-sorting machine, here to guard the quality of the pineapples. Anything pecked by birds or bitten by mice must all be picked out."

Before his son could finish, Li Kechang immediately added, "Yes, yes, yes, pick them out clean, but if a mouse has bitten it, we try not to harvest it, because mice are very loyal and righteous. They will finish one pineapple before eating the next one, unlike the Chinese bulbul, which is very mischievous and pecks here and there all over the place."

Every year from March to May is the best tasting period for Pingtung Golden Diamond pineapple. At this time, the Golden Diamond pineapple has delicate flesh and is incomparably sweet and fragrant. Now it has already entered the tail end of the season. A while ago, A-Yuan had just finished holding a "treasure hunt" at the pineapple field, opening it free to students from National Pingtung University of Science and Technology so they could harvest pineapples from a field about to be retired. "I'm casting a long line to catch a big fish!" A-Yuan said with a hearty laugh.