This week we have been mostly eating pineapple. Why? Because there’s only so much goodness you can get from chocolate and pork pies. And, because we like to take an interest in our food (especially the pork pies), this dietary diversion led to a spot of research into the spiky multifruit.
Multifruit?
That’s right. A pineapple isn’t one fruit, it’s an amalgamation of lots of individual fruits. Each of those tough flaky bits that stick out the side is a fruit in its own right. But that’s by the by. The more important discovery was that pineapple is a particularly rich source of manganese.
“Is that good?” I hear you ask.
Well, yes, it turns out manganese is handy for healthy bones, skin and blood sugar, as well as being an antioxidant (what isn’t these days? OK, pork pies perhaps). Now, bear with me on this. The plot thickens.
When you Google “pineapple”, you don’t have to look far before you get onto pineapple throwing. Which in turn leads on to that singular human passion for throwing peculiar things. Wellies, cow pats, dwarves… they all come in for a bit of recreational launching, and that’s just in England. Pineapple throwing is popular in Australia and has become an Australia Day tradition. Australia Day takes place on 26th January, which just happens to coincide with the festival of San Vicente de Martir in Spain – the one where they throw a goat off a tower.
How about that!
But the coincidence doesn’t end there. The Spanish goat throwing fiesta (they’re not allowed to use a real live goat any more, before you write in and complain) takes place in the town of, wait for it… Manganeses de la Polvarosa. Which very roughly translates as ‘Explosive Manganeses’.
And that reminds me… you can eat too much pineapple.
Have a fruity weekend.
