PINEAPPLES IN PAWHUSKA: OSAGE NATION HARVESTS FRUIT GROWN FROM ‘KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON’ FILMING

PAWHUSKA, Okla. –

There is a new pineapple crop in Pawhuska, after chefs for the Killers of the Flower Moon movie crew gave the Osage Nation pineapple tops, instead of throwing them away.

It’s a behind-the-scenes moment that is making a lasting impact.

At the Osage Nation Harvest Land Farmer’s Market, customers will find salsa, fresh vegetables, eggs, pickles, bison jerky, and for the first time, pineapple.

They come from the greenhouse that sits just around the corner, which is at a temperature of at least 80 degrees all year round.

“These are actually our pineapples that we’ve grown since Killers of the Flower Moon,” Osage Nation Horticulturist Cody Vavra said.

Harvest Land Farms has a commercial kitchen, a convenient place for the chefs to do their work, while the movie was being filmed.

“They would come here, meal prep, cook, and then go into their food trucks to deliver the food to each movie scene,” Osage Nation Food Sovereignty Coordinator Harleigh Moore-Wilson said.

It was Vavra’s idea to save the tops of the pineapples, which came straight from Hawaii, instead of throwing them away. The process started with putting the crowns in cups of water.

“Most of the time you don’t get that amount of quantity of pineapple tops. You may get one or two and usually you fail. So we just winged it when we got a couple hundred, we might as well just try,” Vavra said.

The roughly 45 pineapples that succeeded took about two years to grow. When someone buys one from the farmers market, the crown is saved to grow more for the future.

“We expected failure, but we got success,” Vavra said.

Osage Nation Food Sovereignty Coordinator Harleigh Moore-Wilson finds meaning in that success.

“It just proves that if you put enough time and effort into anything, it has the ability to thrive,” she said. “And that connects back with our Osage ancestors. I mean, they were moved from their original land to Kansas and then here to Osage County. And so they have changed and thrived every single time that we have moved and we are still thriving today and that is why we are building up our Food Sovereignty Program, is to be able to feed ourselves and not to be dependent on anybody else.”

Proving with pineapples — anything is possible.