In Curraghmore, staff once tended 24/7 to the fruit coveted by aristocrats and deemed too scarce to be eaten
Rare pineapples were once admired as a table centrepiece without ever being eaten. Photo: Getty Images
A fortnight ago, I found myself in the walled gardens of Curraghmore in Co Waterford, now home to Grow It Yourself (GIY), the organisation that champions growing food organically.
One of the things that caught my imagination was a relic of gardening history, some overgrown and overwhelmed greenhouses and, more exciting, the hint of some remnants of pineapple pits. This estate once nurtured the most exotic fruit imaginable, coaxed to ripen in the damp Irish climate by the ingenuity and back-breaking labour of generations of gardeners.