PINEAPPLES – A SHORT BUT FRUITY HISTORY
This post is intended in part as a celebration of passing the 50,000 hits mark today. So much interest in the wildlife of one small island – thanks to all those who have visited during the last year or so
The first image below is of the handsome locally hand-carved pineapple that surmounts the roof of the Delphi Club, Abaco. The fruit lost a few leaves in Hurricane Irene last August, which scored a direct hit on the Club. As posted on the ABACO FACTS page (under RANDOM main menu) “the precise Longitude & Latitude coordinates of the Pineapple [on] the Delphi Club roof are respectively –77.1787834167480 & 26.20450323936187 “. But why is it there? Time for a Short Voyage around the Pineapple…
PINEAPPLE FACTS TO ENLIVEN YOUR CONVERSATION
HISTORICAL & SOCIAL CONTEXT
- Brought back to Europe by Christopher Columbus in 1493 on his return from his second voyage
- Taken on long voyages as a protection against scurvy and because of its long life
- By the c17 royalty & aristocracy grew them in hot-houses (or rather, their gardeners did). King Charles II tried one, an event so important it was recorded by the Court painter Hendrik Danckerts
- By c18 considered a great delicacy and a status symbol of wealth, often the centre-piece of a feast.
- If you couldn’t afford to buy one, you could rent one and return it afterwards. Someone richer than you would then buy it.
- Pineapples were grown in pits of fermenting manure. In England Queen Victoria was not amused and soon put an end to that unpleasant nonsense
- In the c19 pineapples were one of the most significant exports from Abaco
- The Earl of Dunmore built a huge pineapple folly in Scotland in 1761, which you can stay in (We have. It’s a lot of fun)
CULTURAL SYMBOLISM
- Pineapples symbolise welcome and hospitality, placed at the entrance to villages or plantations. The tradition spread to Europe where they were carved as gateposts; staircase finials; and incorporated into wooden furniture (including bedposts at the Delphi Club)
- Seafarers put pineapples outside their homes on their return to show that they were back from their travels and ‘at home’ to visitors
- An expensive fruit to grow & to transport; remained a luxury until the arrival of steamships
- Their costliness made them status symbols / indicators of wealth and rank. Displaying or serving pineapple showed that guests were honoured
- In the 1920s the grandest dinners apparently needed both “a pineapple and Lady Curzon” (I have been asked whether this is Interwar Period code for some sort of disreputable activity… I need to check)
- The future Queen Elizabeth was sent 500 cases of canned pineapple as a wedding present from Australia. She asked them “Hev you come far?” Prince Phillip’s reaction was – apart from the word ‘pineapple’ – unprintable
- In the play Abigail’s Party (Mike Leigh) pineapple chunks on cocktail sticks were used as a plot device to highlight the desperate social ambitions of a hellish hostess trying to impress & outclass her guests
- A 1930s ad promised that by baking a pineapple pie a wife would make her man “smack his lips in real he-man enjoyment” (NB This may not work so well in the 2010s)
By Appointment to HM the Queen
ARTS & CRAFTS
- Used on Wedgwood pottery designs as early as the 1760s; others soon followed suit
- Became widely used decoratively as a motif for gateposts, weather vanes, door lintels, wallpaper, table linen & curtains, and incorporated into furniture
- Featured in still life paintings as a crowning example of opulence
- Depicted in plant and fruit studies, for example these by Johann Christoph Volckamer, very early c18
- Featured in music e.g. Pineapple Rag (Scott Joplin); Pineapple Head (Crowded House); Escape – The Piña Colada Song (Rupert Holmes); Pineapple Express (Huey Lewis); Pineapple (Sparks)
- Used as a motif on shutters in Marsh Harbour
- The Men’s Singles Trophy at Wimbledon is a silver gilt cup with a gilded pineapple on top of the lid. These days its meaning is “Welcome back, Roger!”
10 MISCELLANEOUS PINEAPPLE CHUNKS
- The cocktail Afterglow is 1 part grenadine, 4 parts orange juice & 4 parts pineapple juice on ice
- Piña Colada is rum, coconut milk & crushed pineapple. Omit the rum for a Virgin Colada
- It is impossible, for chemical reasons, to make jelly with fresh pineapple
- “Pineapple heat” was once a standard marking on thermometers
- A pineapple grows as two interlocking helixes (8 one way, 13 the other – each being a Fibonacci number)
- A pineapple will never become any riper than it was when harvested
- Workers who cut up pineapples eventually have no fingerprints – a gift fact for crime writers
- Pineapple stems are being tested for anti-cancer properties
- Pine Apple, a small Alabama town full of pineapple symbols, was originally named “Friendship” but there turned out to be another town called that, so they changed it
- Features on the Bahamian 5 cents coin…
- …and (later addition) a $1 stamp
STOP PRESS read Jim Kerr’s interesting article in ABACO LIFE on Abaco’s pineapple past HERE
FRANCESCA BEAUMAN 2006
THE PINEAPPLE – KING OF FRUITS
If you want to find out more about pineapples, their history and social significance, you should be able to pick up a copy of this book on Am@z%n, Abe or ALibris for a few dollars
“What?” I hear you cry, “you’ve managed a whole page about pineapples without mentioning modern advertising”. Shall I do so now? The man from Del Monte, he says YES
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqmpVWzH4FM]THIS POST HAS BEEN REVISED AND UPDATED HERE
Sources: Own ideas + some magpie-thieving-borrowing from a variety of online sources, many of which contain identical info and / or quote from the above book. Hope everyone is comfortable with that…
NB Not every fact above is strictly 100% true, so expect to be challenged if you roll one out. In particular Prince Phillip is of course naturally docile and gentle-mouthed…
POST SCRIPT The first 21 Fibonacci numbers (just add 2 successive numbers to produce the next) are
F0 | F1 | F2 | F3 | F4 | F5 | F6 | F7 | F8 | F9 | F10 | F11 | F12 | F13 | F14 | F15 | F16 | F17 | F18 | F19 | F20 |
0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 13 | 21 | 34 | 55 | 89 | 144 | 233 | 377 | 610 | 987 | 1597 | 2584 | 4181 | 6765 |
I would love to have a pineapple plant in my entry way
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Yes but it would take a while to grow, and longer to fruit. The quick solution might be to decorate your porch / front step / gateway / gateposts with a matched pair of tins of Pineapple Chunks. Long-lasting, edible in an emergency, and undoubtedly a conversation piece… Thanks for joining in. RH
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Brilliant, really entertaining piece on Pineapples well done,
Trish Findlater
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Hi Trish, great to hear from you, and many thanks for that. NB email for Alex in the pipeline re wonderful book he sent us, safely arrived last week. xx
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Love this! (Of course, I love pineapple, too!) What a fun post.
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Good grief – you were quick off the mark, Jody! So glad you liked it – it was fun to research too… RH
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