What's in a pineapple besides bromelain and vitamin C? You say fiber or perhaps reference CAM photosynthesis, an adaption to plant survival in arid climates. All true, but the most recent connection I've made is that foods prepared by hand will always win. Freshly cut pineapple, juicy and sweet, is quite a summer treat. And yes, it's a guilty pleasure for somebody who cares about eating locally. Although conventionally grown pineapples do not have a high incidence of transferring pesticides, they are quite a waste of resources getting one shipped to Minnesota.
That said, I took a stab at cutting a pineapple along the spirals of eyes. This keeps more of the sweet fruit intact, allows the butcher to reflect on life, and looks really neat when done.
Copied from somewhere else, "In the 1820s it was discovered that, amazingly, the Fibonacci series frequently occurs in nature, illustrated particularly clearly in the pineapple. The fruitlets are arranged in curving rows: one set goes one way from base to top, the other crosses the first row at an oblique angle. The number of rows of each always conforms to two consecutive numbers from the Fibonacci series: usually 5 and 8 or 8 and 13, depending on the variety. Every single fruit is the same in this respect. In practical terms, this minimises the amount of mechanical stress exerted on it during growth. But it also means that it fulfils the properties of Divine Proportion—it is, mathematically, perfect."
