go

My Own Pineapple!

by Olivia Wu

Like many Asian Australian families, I grew up with spring onions in the backyard that were used all the time in our cooking. But, besides this, we didn’t do much in the way of gardening or growing other vegetables because we were all so busy. Recently, my Dad was growing olive trees, orange trees, blood orange trees, limes, and just experimenting in his spare time.

We went through a phase of buying a pineapple a week and sharing it between the family. We wanted to give growing our own a go, yet it seemed notoriously difficult. My Dad, always a determined person, decided that we had some spare space in the backyard and tended to it carefully. There was a lot of trial and error because he wanted to do it his way, not some video that we watched. It was probably better this way – it made the process a lot less like a “chore” and more something to nurture.

Every weekend we would check on its progress and found real joy in watching it grow, and doing research about how best to tend to it. It really made us value and appreciate his patience because it took months before anything was even visible!