As we scooted along the narrow, meandering roads from Gaosiung to Fo Guang Shan Monastery in the south of Taiwan, we passed fields and fields of pineapples. If you’ve not seen them before, these sweets grow one at a time and slowly, right in the middle of what looks to be a palm tree top set neatly on the ground. At first I thought the extensive fields were strewn with paper trash, as so many fields in Asia sadly can be, but these were beautifully tended otherwise. Taiwan is all about pineapple cakes–singly wrapped, bite-sized delights that are slightly dense, pineappley sweet and not too sugary. The paper mess was a mystery! We stopped once or twice near these fields because they were also devoid of street markers. While Taylor and Dave examined the map, I realized that the young spiked tops of these growing piñas were deliberately punched through newspaper as their fruits grew below, “These pineapples are wearing clothes!” The guys didn’t care as much as I did, since directions weren’t exactly easy, but later Taylor did some research. It turns out that the southern Taiwan sun doesn’t only burn fair-skinned humans, but sweet fruits as well. The pineapples are dressed in paper to shade from sunburn as they grow.