10 Pineapples for 5 Dollars!

Can you believe that? Pineapple up in Minnesota is a bit of a luxury fruit. This morning I went to El Mercado with my host mom here. The market she regularly frequents is not the normal farmers market, rather it is the market that vendors and restaurants visit to buy in bulk. So, it is cheaper. I think we were the only non-vendors buying there. Other buyers were men trucking off on tricycle carts piled with mountains of fruit.

Host mom's style of shopping is not to be messed with--10 pineapples, 5 pounds of strawberries, three watermelon, about 100 oranges, and a few pounds of carrots and fruits I don't recognize, alongside a half pound of garlic. This is serious shopping.

The fruits and veggies at the market are thrown on the concrete under a huge open air roof. Mountains of pineapple, truckloads of watermelon----mmm time for breakfast.