Leonardo DiCaprio’s Unwitting Gift to the Osage: ‘They’re growing pineapples in Oklahoma’

In last week’s episode with Dr Jann Hayman, winding up our series from the Osage Nation, I mentioned we’d just been on a tour of their astounding Greenhouse. The woman who kindly gave us that tour, Dawn Wormington, had been recruited for the job by the Osage. And in this brief bonus to the Osage series, we hear from Dawn about the unexpected, unintended gift that keeps on giving, out of the filming of Killers of the Flower Moon. 

If you happen to have come to the Osage series here first, you can hear my brief scene-setting introductory episode to the series with filmmaker Nicol Ragland here, my conversation with Chief Standing Bear here, and subsequent conversation with Dr Jann Hayman here (recommended in sequence).

I’ll share more photos of our visit, in addition to those appearing on the website, with paid subscribers this week.

Recorded 4 April 2025.

Title slide: AJ & Dawn astride the pineapples in the greenhouse (pic: Nicol Ragland).

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Music:

Music by Jeremiah Johnson.

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Pre-roll music: Heartland Rebel, by Steven Beddall (sourced from Artlist).

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Episode Transcript

AJ (00:00):
All right Dawn.
Tell us the story about thepineapple we're standing in
front of.

Dawn (00:04):
Okay.
So back when they did the moviewe had the chefs from
California.
They kept their food here inour cooler and our freezer and
one day they were going outwhacking the tops off of
pineapples to go feed the peopleand our horticulturist asked if
he could grow them and I saidabsolutely not, because it takes
about three to four years.
Well, in a greenhouse it onlytakes about a year.

(00:25):
He made us famous.
The news came out.
Everybody was here.
They're growing pineapples inOklahoma.
So our first round we weregetting two and three babies.
After you harvest yourpineapple, that's all.
You get one pineapple and thenthe plant produces starter
plants for you.
Last year we got two to threestarter plants and this year

(00:46):
they're shooting off 16 starterplants.
So we won't be able to keep allthose.
I mean, we don't have that kindof room here.
We are 40,000 square foot.

AJ (00:57):
We can export to California.

Dawn (00:59):
Yes, we have other things to grow, so we'll be donating
those and seeing if anybodywants to try growing them at
home.

AJ (01:05):
Far out.
So let me get this straight.
So Leonardo starring for thisfilm.

Dawn (01:09):
Yes.

AJ (01:10):
They've got this full high-level kitchen operating and
they imported these pineapplesfrom California en masse, yes,
and out of that sprung theopportunity.
Was it you that you?

Dawn (01:20):
said no, it was a horticulturist.

AJ (01:22):
His name was Cody Vavra he used to work for us and he said
hey, yeah.
I could use those he did.

Dawn (01:29):
And he made us famous.
He sure did.

AJ (01:32):
That is outstanding, and Nicole asked before whether
Leonardo knows this.
But we suspect not.
I suspect not.
I suspect he'd enjoy it,because now I'm looking at a
full row.
Because now I'm looking at afull row, there we go.
We're looking at the linePineapples everywhere.
It's extraordinary.
But while we're on it, dawn,it's worth saying the greenhouse

(01:54):
is amazing.
How long has this been here?

Dawn (01:59):
So this was built in 2020 when the pandemic hit and we
were planting in 21.
It was COVID money.

AJ (02:03):
Good, it was great, yeah, amazing.
And that's when you came across, then we were planting in 21.
It was COVID money, good, good,covid money.
It was great, yeah, amazing.

Dawn (02:06):
And that's when you came across then, being able to take
care of the people if anythinghappens again.

AJ (02:08):
That's what it's for Exactly , and you came across for this,
or you were here already.

Dawn (02:13):
They came to get me.

AJ (02:14):
Brilliant Thanks, dawn.

Dawn (02:15):
Thank you, it's great to meet you and thanks for showing
me around.
Oh you got around, oh okay.
Well, if you get a chance whileyou're over there, you go
through the double doors.
You'll see the lettuce growingin aquaponics.

AJ (02:29):
Oh cool.

Dawn (02:30):
Aquaponics is fish water.

AJ (02:33):
Outstanding, so the aquaponics works well.

Dawn (02:36):
Yes, yeah, we still have a lot of issues because we kind
of were thrown into all that.
All that stuff was purchasedwith the COVID money before any
of us were hired and nobody knewwhat they were doing.
But they had plans.
They had great plans on whatthey wanted to do.
So it's a great start.
It just you know we're in fouryears.
It's going to take some time tomake sure everything's running

(02:59):
properly the way it should.
We still have a lot ofaquaponics to set up.
We still have half of thosebeds to set up.
Right now we're just workingwith the two and five hundred
head of fish.

AJ (03:10):
Yeah, there you go, cool, Thank you.