Colm & Lucy saw it in the Daily Mail but didn’t believe it till they spoke to the lady herself.
Malahide resident Noreen Handley has defined the odds and grown a pineapple in her conservatory.
After seeing a video on the internet showing how to replant the leaves of a pineapple Noreen popped it in a pot where it lay dormant for 3 and a half years until last summer when it suddenly produced purple flowers
As the petals died off, a bulb began to grow which after 9 months eventually took the shape of a pineapple.
Pineapples in Ireland usually come from Costa Rica, Columbia, Panama, The Ivory Coast or other areas in South America and take two years to develop in the tropics.
The pineapple, indigenous to the Americas, was known by the Guarani Indians as ‘nana, the excellent fruit’. It wasn’t until 1493 that Christopher Columbus “discovered” pineapples on the island of Guadeloupe and named them “Pina de Indes” – or pine of the Indians, which eventually became the name we know today.
The Gardening Guru Diarmuid Gavin revealed while Noreen’s isn’t the first pineapple grown in Ireland, it is a rarity but one you can try at home as he featured on his Instagram.
