I sometimes go to extremes, with not wanting to waste anything

Using the core of a fresh pineapple

We were given a whole, fresh pineapple as a thank you, for some work my daughters and I helped with a week ago. Fresh pineapple is pretty rare for us, so we made the absolute most of the one we received.

The core of the pineapple is less flavorful, and more fibrous than the outer flesh of the fruit. Often the core is just disposed of.

I added the core pieces to a pitcher of filtered water and left in the fridge for a couple of days. This pleasantly flavored our drinking water for a couple of days.

Before I discarded the core pieces, I thought that maybe there's still some flavor left in them. So, I ran them through the juicer. I've got to be honest here. The resulting juice was significantly less flavorful than commercial pineapple juice. But not wanting to waste any nutrients, I mixed it in with the rest of some orange juice. Pleasant enough. Then, and only then, did I compost the remains of those pineapple cores.

I also cut the crown off and have it sitting in a saucer of water. I have a hunch that you need more of the pineapple corwn than I allowed. But if it does grow in to a house plant, that will be fun.

You know, I considered trying to use the skins of the pineapple. Some people juice the skins and all. But our pineapple was looking a little less than fresh, so I composted those skins. Still, the compost will make a free soil amendment in a few months, so I guess I didn't let any of it go to waste.

This is one of those weird little tips, and I'm not even sure if its true. But I was once told by the produce guy at the market, that to prevent fermentation of sugars at the base of a pineapple, and to ripen the fruit evenly,  stand  the whole pineapple, upside down, on the counter for 2 to 3 days. Does this work for us? Well, since I started doing this, none of our pineapples have had a fermented bottom half. But still, I don't know, for certain, if this really works.