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Featured Posts
- St. Patrick’s Day Pineapple Punch
- Sheet Pan Perfect Pineapple Ham
- Can A Pineapple Really Live Under the Sea?
- Say Aloha to Our Hawaiian-style Ham and Pineapple Pasta Recipe
- Holiday Joy, Hanukkah, and Pineapple Kugel
- What are China’s Pineapple Science Awards?
- Fuel Up with Paleo Pineapple Fried Rice
- Best Gluten-Free Pineapple Upside Down Cake
- Piña Colada Pie in a Jar
- Slow Cooking Your Pineapple This Fall
Featured
Tips: How to Perfectly Slice the Perfect Pineapple
By Dr. Lloyd Berg, PhD.
It’s a beautiful weekend and the patio furniture is calling your name! You’ve called up your mates and invited them over for a lovely get-together outside under the warm sun. In preparing a nice spread, you realize it’s finally time to bring out your favorite food, your countertop rock star, your MVP (your most valuable plate)…the unmatched, sweet, juicy and always satisfying pineapple!
Yeah!!! Ok…so…how do we cut this thing again?
Believe it or not, most people you know are probably cutting pineapples the “wrong” way. Well, sure, technically you can cut a pineapple however you’d like. BUT, if you think a pineapple should be cut quickly, efficiently and functionally – then join us as we teach you how to cut a pineapple the “right” way.
So good in fact, you won’t even need an extra plate by the time you’re done. Click on the video below for instructions and happy slicing!
For more information about Chestnut Hill Farms’ Perfect Pineapple™ please contact our offices at (305) 592-6969.
Posted in Featured, Recipes, Tips & Tall Tales
Feel Like a Spring Chicken Every Day of the Year!
By Dr. Lloyd Berg, PhD.
Today marks the first day of spring! Flowers are blossoming, tiny birdies are chirping and little lambs are bleating. Yes, “bleating.” It’s the fancy, proper word for the wavering “baah” sound Bo Peep’s besties make all up and down the pastures. Bet you didn’t know that!
And you know what else we’re pretty sure you never knew: pineapples are good for your skeletal system. Make no bones about it – pineapples will help you keep standing tall and strong for the rest of your life.
Pineapples contain nearly 75 percent of the daily-recommended value of the mineral manganese, which is essential in developing strong bones and connective tissue, according to the Linus Pauling Institute. Whether you’re young or old, eating more pineapple will enhance your bone strength. So much so, that a study published in 1994 even suggests that the manganese, along with other trace minerals, found in pineapples may be helpful in preventing osteoporosis in post-menopausal women.
A literal “crown(ed) jewel” in your supermarket, pineapple is a great way to enhance your Vitamin C consumption. One cup of fresh pineapple chunks contains more than 100 percent of the Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA) for Vitamin C or ascorbic acid. Among many of their roles, this crucial vitamin and antioxidant are involved in collagen formation that binds bone cells together making them stronger.
But that’s not all you get from a slice of The Perfect Pineapple™. Copper, Vitamins B6, B1 and Folate, are all trace minerals and B-complex nutrients that act synergistically with each other in the production of collagen and elastin, both connective tissue proteins. Not to mention you’ll also receive a shot of bromelain (a super antioxidant we’ve mentioned before), which also works as an anti-inflammatory to relieve joint pain and arthritic symptoms.
Oi! All of these goodies in one prickly package? Now that’s a BOGO deal to rave about. You better BAAH-lieve it!
This blog entry is part of a multi-post series on the potential benefits of pineapples. For more information about pineapple consumption, please contact us at info@chfusa.com.
Posted in Featured, Tips & Tall Tales
Tagged health
Take a Wok on the Wild Side.
By Dr. Lloyd Berg, PhD.
Pineapples can make even the most traditionally hearty meals healthier and tastier!
If you’re looking for a quick, easy and flavorful dish to whip up tonight that doesn’t make you feel guilty every time you take another bite, then we’ve got just the recipe for you.
One of our favorite dishes, Pineapple Fried Rice makes cleaning out the fridge look downright gourmet. With several variations for this recipe, we take our cue from the expertise of West Coast meal guru Chungah at DamnDelicious.com.
Mixing brown rice, peas, carrots, corn, bite-sized ham and of course fresh pineapple chunks, this tasty take on take-out is sure to become one of your new favorites.
Ready to wok on the wild side?
Stop by DamnDelicious.com and check out the full recipe here.
For more information about Chestnut Hill Farms its products, please contact our offices at (305) 592-6969.
Posted in Featured, Recipes, Tips & Tall Tales
Never judge a book by its cover…Or a pineapple by its crown!
By Dr. Lloyd Berg, PhD.
It’s the jewel in the crown that counts.
As a famous pineapple once said, “Don’t let a brown crown slow you down!” Well, of course a pineapple never said that. Pineapples can’t talk. BUT if they did, they would let you know why their crowns sometimes brown at different times of the year.
The short explanation for all of this: The pineapple fruit is encased in a bromeliad plant that requires a lot of sunshine to keep its outer shell and crown leaves green. Yet, even in the tropics, some days aren’t as sunny as others. (Check out our weekly farm reports for more details). Without sun and with over exposure to shade and fog, crowns result in burnt – or browned – crowns.
And if you must, here is the long, scientific explanation: As with most common plants, the pineapple plant’s respiration process absorbs CO2 (carbon dioxide) and as a result, malic acid (a chemical mix of CO2 and water) accumulates in its leaves as the process continues. Yet, unlike most common plants, the pineapple is special in that it does this overnight – not during the day. Because the malic acid is produced immediately after absorption it begins to “build up” – beginning the process of browning on a plant’s leaves. The only thing that can slow down the accumulation of malic acid or break it down is sunlight. In the absence of sun light – meaning very low solar intensity on dark or very cloudy days – this excess of malic acid is what creates what is best known as a “brown crown.”
Yet it’s important to remember that no matter what’s on top, The Perfect Pineapple™ is always sweet and juicy. It truly is a golden jewel, under a sometimes temperamental crown.
For more information about Chestnut Hill Farms’ Perfect Pineapple™ please contact our offices at (305) 592-6969.
Posted in Featured, Tips & Tall Tales
Eat Happy Project: Education from around the World
By Dr. Lloyd Berg, PhD.
We are so very proud to share the results of a recent project we embarked on with one of our longstanding customers, European-based Tesco PLC. An admirable example of what can be done in the sphere of social responsibility, Tesco recently launched the Eat Happy Project. Since its inception it has been committed to helping the next generation have a healthier and happier relationship with food. To make this change, Tesco works to give children the tools they need to live a healthy life and make better decisions about what they put on their plates when they grow up.
In addition to the Eat Happy Project’s “Farm to Fork” trail visits and hands-on cooking demonstrations, Tesco has partnered with Google+ Hangouts to produce Online Field Trips that bring far away farms and factories into UK classrooms, and host lessons from food suppliers around the world via live video chats.
Honored to be selected for a recent Online Field Trip for three England-based elementary schools, Chestnut Hill Farms joined students one afternoon to introduce them to the world of “prickly pineapples.” Joining one of its packing houses in Kent, our very own President and COO Raul Romero help lead a discussion about pineapple basics and answered a few questions.
The results? Fantastic! As one of the classroom’s homework assignments, Mr. Handley asked students to post their own pineapple recipes in his classroom blog. Click here to see the fun and (very, very) versatile recipes.
For more information about the Tesco‘s Eat Happy Project, visit http://www.eathappyproject.com/resource-hub/online-field-trips/pineapples/. For more information about Chestnut Hill Farms’ Perfect Pineapple™ please contact our offices at (305) 592-6969.
Posted in Featured, Latest News, Tips & Tall Tales
Leave Santa a MOST traditional welcome note!
By Dr. Lloyd Berg, PhD.
With Christmas Eve tomorrow night, we thought we would throw out a little known fact about pineapples that might actually get you on the “nice list!” (There’s still time.)
And while we can’t exactly tell you that pineapple is Santa’s favorite fruit (well, we – of course – have a hunch it might be), we CAN tell you that Santa has been around a long time and knows more than most about what a pineapple can really mean if given as a gift.
Photo from Bakeat350.Blogspot.com
Traditionally, a pineapple is often recognized as a traditional expression of “welcome” throughout many parts of the Untied States , especially the South and along the Eastern Seaboard. We see it in all forms of home décor.
But why has the pinnacle fruit become so prevalent? As Learn2Grow.com puts it, “it boils down to a matter of trade.” Sailors needed cues from towns they were about to sail into that it was “safe” for their arrival. Place a pineapple out front, and it was inferred …”you are welcome here.” Hospitality was given wherever a pineapple was in sight.
So this Christmas, how should you welcome Santa? With some pineapple cookies of course!
Warmest wishes to all,
Dr. Lloyd
Posted in Featured, Recipes, Tips & Tall Tales
Time Again for A Holiday Favorite: Upside Down Pineapple Cake
By Dr. Lloyd Berg, PhD.
Dear Ole’ Santa may be all about cookies come this time of the year, but hosts and hostesses across the States know that when it comes to holiday cooking, this season is all about the fluffier baked goods…Cakes, cakes and cakes galore!
Pineapple Upside Down Cake, brought to you by BarefeetIntheKitchen.com.
As classic staple dessert in our recipe repertoire, the traditional, yet always fresh, Pineapple Upside Down Cake is something we recommend you serve up this winter break.
This version of the time-honored treat comes from Mary and Barefeet in the Kitchen. Whipping up both traditional and gluten-free recipes for the this annual favorite, Mary provides detailed instructions and uses fresh fruit instead of canned – something we always recommend!
So, visit Barefeet in the Kitchen here and give this recipe a try.
Warmest holiday wishes!
Dr. Lloyd
Posted in Featured, Recipes, Tips & Tall Tales
Tips: How to Tell if a Pineapple is Ripe
By Dr. Lloyd Berg, PhD.
Anytime I meet someone new and they’re made aware on my professional background, I’m usually asked the same question time after time: “how can you tell when a pineapple is ripe and ready to eat?” When I let them know the answer, the expression is usually one of surprise.
Contrary to popular belief, pineapples are at the perfect serving condition right from the store. Yes, you heard that right – yellow OR green, they are always ready to eat.
Unlike avocados or mangos, this tropical fruit is harvested when fully matured. Anticipating the days required for travel to your local store, pineapples are cut within a few days of the ripening process. Coloration does not determine ripeness and in fact is just an expression of variety or growing conditions for that particular fruit. Brown or green coloring does not mean it isn’t ripe yet – it’s just a result of the growing process. A pineapple doesn’t need to be bright yellow – it just needs to smell right!
So next time you’re thinking about making a dish with pineapple or serving it at your next dinner party, remember to buy it the day of and let your nose be your guide. We guarantee its freshness!
For more information about Chestnut Hill Farms’ Perfect Pineapple™ please contact our offices at (305) 592-6969.
Posted in Featured, Tips & Tall Tales
Chestnut Hill Farms: ‘We think pineapples’
We are proud to share with our customers and friends a recent article published in this week’s Miami Herald featuring Chestnut Hill Farms.
As a part of the publication’s recent “Gateway” series, highlighting companies making waves in the trade industry, the Business Monday section chose to profile Chestnut Hill Farms as one of the leading export/import companies headquartered in the region.
Described as “a major pineapple grower and marketer in the international market,” reporter Joseph Mann includes our company’s beginnings, specialties and future projections.
We invite you to take a read and find out how we are working each and every day to better serve you, our customers!
Posted in Featured, Latest News
Eat Healthy. Eat Pure.
By Dr. Lloyd Berg, PhD.
The unofficial motto of Costa Rica (a country frequently votes as “the” happiest place to live) is “Pura Vida.” Literally translating to “pure life,” the phrase is more like a daily mantra meaning “real” or “fully .”
And while some might think that this month’s recipe would call for an insanely indulgent dessert to go along with some of traditional holiday fare, we decided to take a much simpler route – A quick, easy and purely healthy salad.
While the original recipe comes from GiveMeSomeOven.com, around the farm, we’ve decided to name it the “Pura Vida Salad.” Complete with fresh grilled pineapples, baby spinach, blueberries and avocados, we’re sure this superfood-packed salad will give you some of the energy you’ll need to fully enjoy – or live – the day.
Stop by GiveMeSomeOven.com and check out the full recipe here.
Enjoy,
Dr. Lloyd
For more information about Chestnut Hill Farms its products, please contact our offices at (305) 592-6969.