June 2, 2017 • 43 mins
Throughout its history, the much-sought-after pineapple has symbolized friendship, luxury and royalty. Anney and Lauren look into the pineapple's past to determine where this symbolism arose from, as well as where the pineapple is heading.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello, and welcome to food Stuff. I'm Anny Eeries and
I'm Lauren Block obam, and today we're adjusting our microphones
and also talking about pineapple. Yep, another food that Lauren
can't have. Yeah, and so delicious do you remember, Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
This This is one that I actually get some of
the most sympathy out of other people for. When I
(00:29):
mentioned that, people are like, I'll be like listing things
off and I get to pineapple and they're like, oh no,
really what how I feel the same way when people
tell me they don't like pineapple, I'm like affronted. That
can't be true. But thanks to listener Aaron, we know
it might be an intolerant to the enzyme bromelaine, which
(00:49):
is only in fresh pineapple, meaning canned pineapple and juice
could be fine, could be fine if that's the problem
that I'm having. Bromelaine, by the way, is broken down
by heat, which is applied as part of the ending
and juice making process, which is why it's not in
canned juice and fruit. Right, And we got a lot
of request for pineapple when I mentioned in passing that
(01:11):
the history of pineapple might be a lot of fun,
but I had no idea and spoiler alert, lots of fun.
It's it's more fun than some other things. Some of
it's really fun, some of it I love. Yes, it
is awesome. But before we get into that, let's let's
do our basic like, like, what is it? Yes, pineapples
are a tropical fruit and their mother plant actually looks
(01:33):
really cool. Yeah, if you want to look it up. Um,
it's made up of a bunch of different small fruits
that have combined around the core. That's what all the
segments or eyes on the fruit are there. There evidence
of the individual berries that all grow from individual flowers
on the plant's single central stem. Right, I had no idea.
(01:54):
Yeah that's great. Yeah, it's really it's really cool and
like only a little bit like chron in burgean. Yes,
I've heard that word three times a day. That's the
type of day I'm having. Anyway. They can grow up
to one point five meters or about four point nine
ft tall, which is also larger than I would have guessed,
(02:15):
and pineapple harvesting still has to be done largely by hand.
It takes about two years for pineapple to grow, and
harvesters walk through the crop in these thick suits to
protect themselves from those spikey leaves. And once the crop
is harvested, the field is quote knocked down to make
way for a new growing cycle. Yeah, because they kind
(02:36):
of grow there's sort of weed like at a certain point.
So if you don't totally knock the field down, then
you'll get weird, little errant plants that aren't aren't as
high quality is the stuff that you're putting in there
on purpose. Also in order to match demand year round,
pineapples can be forced to flower through chemical means, and
so that's how we keep up a fresh supply of
pineapple all year. I see. And if you're looking for
(03:00):
a fresh pineapple at the store and you're wondering, well,
how laural do I know what is a good pineapple?
That there's something I have thought to myself. You want
to look for one that has green leaves that don't
really fall off when you pull them in a firm body.
And unlike most fruits, pineapples don't ripen more once they've
been picked, because they draw their sweetness from their starch space.
(03:23):
But generally, though, the sooner you eat them, the better.
And if you cut it up, sort and the refrigerator.
That does go bad pretty quickly, I think, but unto themselves,
they can hang out for a while. And you've probably
only had one type of pineapple, and that's the m
D two cultivar, which is a hybrid that was developed
to preserve the sweetness while also lowering the acidity and
(03:46):
preventing browning, which was a problem for the previously most
popular fresh pineapple type called smooth cayenne, which makes up
more than half of the m D two hybrid. Yeah.
But yeah, there's way more variety, more varieties. I never
I had never known. No, And there is a place
in Hawaii were they uh sell at least twenty different varieties.
(04:10):
I remember eating the different types. What did they taste like?
Were they all basically pineapple? Or I know they have
different taste I think. Um. I believe the smooth cayenne
was the sweetest, So I imagine that these varieties would
be listed less sweet. Yeah. I would love to try
different type of pineapple, right, Oh? Or I mean I
(04:31):
guess I wouldn't, because I would try a way that
was both not gonna make you jealous, but also describe
the flavor accurately. It would be difficult. It would the
pineapples that we eat our seedless, because you grow a
new pineapple by rooting a piece of an existing plant. Yeah,
and to form the seed you need pollination, and hummingbirds
(04:55):
are the most frequent pollinators. But seed formation isn't great
for the quality of which is why Hawaii prohibits importation
of hummingbirds. No hummingbirds in Hawaii. No, And who's importing
humming I don't. I don't know. Just yeah, like like, hey, Bob,
I need twenty hummingbirds. Steps. I'm not sure why that
was in that accent anyway. Um. They're pretty easy to
(05:16):
grow on your own, though. Yeah. You just take the
crown from the plant, put it somewhere drying dar for
a week so it'll harden, and then in an eight
inch porespot with good drain age, will lay down a
layer of gravel and then a layer of light soil
and composted the material. Oh my goodness, and both just
put our huma uh and from there, yeah, you just
(05:37):
let it grow and once it starts to grow, you
want to move it to a twelve inch pop same conditions.
I'm determined to try this. I can't believe it would
be this easy, but I'll find out. That's I've heard
that it can take a while to to get it
to to really take. But right, but there's this nice
fellow who hangs out sometimes in your your decab farmers market,
which is a local market around here in Atlanta, who
(06:00):
you'll just hang out near the pineapples and kind of
like wait for someone to come up to the pineapples
and then tell them about this. It's it's actually very
sweet like the pineapple. Next time I go there, maybe
I will run into him. Look out for him. Yeah. Uh.
Similarly to cauliflower, the pineapple is another example of the
golden ratio in nature. Yeah, and when when it's fresh,
(06:23):
it is pretty healthy. It's high in vitamin C and manganese,
especially um, which helps your immune system and bone strength,
among loads of other things. It is also chock full
of fructose though, so you know, just in moderation. Right.
Aforementioned bromelaine, which is an enzyme a pineapple. It can
be used as a meat tenderizer and cut fruit preserver,
(06:46):
and it's sometimes used as an anti inflammatory. There aren't
many studies or any like conclusively, right, Um, the researchers
are currently looking at bromolines can't or fighting properties as well.
I think that I did not know unripe, but pineapple
is toxic and can cause just really bad diarrhea and
(07:09):
vomiting kind of issues, right. Um. Also, apparently, eating a
lot of pineapple cores um, which not everyone eats but
they are edible, can lead to the formation of something
called fiber balls in the digestive tract. That sounds awful.
I don't know what it means, and I don't honestly
want to. But speaking of fiber, fibers from the leaves
(07:31):
of pineapple are sometimes woven into embroidery, thread, cloth, and
paper in places like Brazil and the Philippines. Despite its
association with Hawaii, Hawai is not the top producer um,
not anymore at least, and it's not even where they're
native to. No no uh. Instead, and the top producers
(07:51):
were Costa Rica, Brazil, and the Philippines, with a total
worldwide production equalling five point four million tons and behind
apple sauce and peaches, pineapple is the most canned fruit
and behind the Pearl Harbor bombing site, the Dull pineapple
plantation is the most visited tourist attraction in Hawaii, as
(08:15):
pineapple industry was a nine billion dollar industry. It's a
lot of pineapples. That's nothing to sneeze at pineapple. Um,
so how did the pineapple grow to become this massive industry? Well,
in order to determine that, we have to go thousands
of years back to stuff that we're not entirely certain
(08:37):
about history. Uh huh um. So we know that pineapples
originated in South America, most likely in the region of
like Brazil or Paraguay some somewhere around there, and they
were domesticated as long as as six thousand years ago
or more, possibly by the Two Pie people and or
(08:59):
by the Guarini people, and from there they spread throughout
the continent to Central America, Mexico and the West Indies
and or Caribbean, depending on what you would like to
call it. The plant was called by the locals um
the nana, which could mean excellent fruit. I've also seen
its meaning listed as perfumed, but either way, this is
(09:20):
where we get the scientific name for pineapples, which is
ananas almos. In addition to being eaten raw or cooked,
pineapple juice was also fermented to make wine and liquors.
And it was and in some regions still is used
medicinally due to that bromlean content for a whole bunch
of different things, as a cure for gas or intestinal
(09:41):
parasites and other stobdach problems. Um, to cure skin problems
like corns and worts, to stimulate menstrual flow, and to
induce abortion. Okay, okay, I didn't see that one coming. Uh.
Non edible cultivars were grown for the strong fiber in
their leaves aforementioned still used in like embroidery and find
(10:03):
fine goods like that um way back when was woven
to make stuff like clothing and hammocks and fishing nets. Wow,
quite useful. The pineapple, it seems in four Christopher Columbus. Mr.
Christopher Columbus he stopped up a couple of times. He
stumbled upon the pineapple when he stopped on Guadalupe, and
(10:28):
he called it Pinia de Indies or pine of the Indians.
In his journal um. He described it as resembling a
pine cone, but a sweet fruit with an apple's firmness.
He returned to Spain with some pineapples, where it was
a huge hit. People loved how sweet it was. I mean,
(10:49):
in our sweet tooth. It's really kind of shaped history
and just the way I did not anticipate very intensely. Yeah. Anyway,
when they tried to grow their own pineapples in Europe
are more particularly in England, they found little to no
success due to the non tropical weather for this tropical plant.
Holland did have some some success, however, and Dutchman Pierre
(11:11):
de la Court Vandervoort sorry about it Um is credited
with growing the first pineapple in Europe in sixteen fifty eight. Um.
So they had to import them, which was crazy, time
consuming and expensive, and the fruit often arrived bruised and
or rotten. Yeah, because without refrigeration, it's a really difficult
thing to do. And and pineapples can't survive frost. Is
(11:34):
is the thing about growing them that they do best
in temperatures above sixty five degrees fahrenheit a k a.
Like eighteen degrees celsius. Other famous dudes who were roaming
around the oceans Magellan. Yeah, Magellan got in the pineapple
game after he discovered them in Brazil in fifty nineteen,
which increased the import of pineapples into Europe Um they
(11:57):
often arrived candied or covered in syrup. Oh since the
transport of the fruit was so difficult, and during the
sixteenth century Spain and Portugal introduced the pineapple to places
like oh Why. Although the first recorded mention of it
was in um Guam, the Philippines Zimbabwe fifteen fifty, in India,
(12:19):
in China and South Africa in sixteen fifty, and it's
around this time the word pineapple first appeared in print
um and it got its name thanks to its resemblance
to a pine cone. Previously, pineapple was used to describe
pine cones, and the word pine cone also popped up
in Texas the first time in sixteen sixty four, which
(12:39):
makes sense. Also how how disappointing would it be if
you heard the word pineapple, you picked up a pine
cone and thought maybe I could eat this somehow and
you just can't know. I guess you could use it
to smoke other foods that would be delicious. There are
other uses, for sure. Due to the high cost of
(13:01):
refined sugar, the low availability of sweets, and pineapple's rarity,
it very quickly became a symbol of wealth. King Charles
the Second commissioned a painting of himself receiving a pineapple
from his gardener as as a display of I don't
know what what would you put it as? Like wealthitude,
(13:25):
royal nous. Yeah. Royals would often give them as as
gifts when they were looking to just super impress somebody. Yeah,
and you should look up the painting because it's great. Um.
And in seventeen hundreds Colonial America, pineapple's imported from the
Caribbean islands, due to how perishable and rare they were,
(13:45):
could cost as much as eight thousand dollars in today's money.
Eight dollars. That's a very expensive piece of fruit. And
since much of the colonies were like the car isn't
worth that much? Please please continue crazy um. Since much
(14:05):
of the colonies at the time were like small hubs
of activity, a lot of the entertaining went on in
people's homes, and when well off colonists wanted to show
off just how well off they were um and also hospitable.
Also um, they would display a pineapple at dinner parties.
(14:26):
But like display, display, like, it's main use was decoration.
It was the center of these big fruit and food
piles and mounds and it'd be revealed at the when
the moment was right, they would throw open the doors
and behold and behold, we have all of this food,
and it's crowned by the majestic pineapple. And they'd only
(14:50):
eat them once they started to go back. No, that's
so sad for the pineapple, I know. And for those
porcels who couldn't afford a pineapple. There was still hope
for you. Uh you there was a pineapple rental market.
Is ok? Yes, you heard that correctly. There's a pineapple
rental market and the enterprising pineapple sellers and it's usually
(15:14):
Baker's who used pineapples and desserts, and they were pretty
in the loop about who was having dinner parties so
they could they knew who to approach, and they would
print out pineapples before selling them, and people would carry
them around at parties. I can't imagine a more comfortable
accessive being someone who was held onto a pineapple for
(15:37):
like a decent amount of time during that one photo
shoot that we did. Like I can say that that's
not that wouldn't be my first choice. No, uh, better
than spiky pain melon, Yes, by far, spiky pain melon.
I kind of want to just carry on a pineapple
for a day and see what kind of comments I get. Um.
(16:00):
But anyway, George Washington named it his favorite chocolate fruit
after trying it in Barbados in seventee. And it's around
this time in the seventeen sixties that the pineapple as
the symbol of friendship and hospitality started become really trendy,
super trending. Yeah, pineapples are on neck it's tablecloths, wallpaper, bedpost,
(16:21):
pineapple shaped dishes. They were on the gate post outside
of residences, on the backs of chairs, on weather veins
of important public buildings, pineapple shaped candelobros and pictures, door
and archers and the Caribbean, you'd put a pineapple or
a pineapple crown outside your door to represent friendship. They
were everywhere, and you can still see evidence of it
(16:41):
to this day. I hear it's pretty prevalent in Colonial Williamsburg.
I've never been o me, neither um that there was
even a huge pineapple pineapple shaped bit of architecture that
was put up in uh in Scotland and Dunmore Park
in seventeen sixty one. It much like one of those
fruit piles at a fancy party. It's just the giant
(17:04):
crown right at the center top of this building. Um,
and the building below it he used to house a
a hothouse, which is part of what would make pineapples
able to be to be grown in more places. But
it's it's still there. You can still go visited. I
would love to. It's really majestic. Take a second in
(17:25):
google it, y'all. There's a reason the pineapple is called
the king of fruits. Um, and that's not in either.
Foods were pressed into pineapples. Other foods were made to
look like pineapple, like cakes, cookies, candies, gents, and molds.
I mean, it doesn't fit the alliteration, but it's still nice. Yeah.
(17:47):
And also, uh, I had a resurgence in the fifties
and sixties. Oh, absolutely, probably due partially to tiki culture,
which I have a note about much later. Right. So,
going back to Europe, they hadn't given up on growing
their own pineapple, No, and with the advent of the
(18:07):
hot house in the seventeenth century, pineapples could be grown
more widely in Europe. UM. The first recorded one was
Duchess of Cleveland's hot house in St. Two, from which
she gifted a pineapple to King Charles the second, which
is how the aforementioned painting came about. But even with houses,
pineapples couldn't be produced on a large scale, and the
(18:29):
cost was still high due to the equipment and labor required,
so high, in fact, that owning one of these hot
houses meant for growing pineapples, which were called pine ears
or pineapple stoves. Became a symbol for wealth along with
the pineapple. Wow, um, all right, yeah, you know cool?
(18:50):
Look at my pineary how much money I've got? Allegedly,
in seventeen seventy nine, the pineapple was even used in
political discourse, with an egalitarian dissenter saying, what's right has
one man to eat a pineapple for which he gave
a guinea when another is starving for want of a
halfpenny worth of bread? And then his His opponent responded saying,
(19:14):
how many depends on their share of the guinea paid
for the pineapple? When you shall have divided the guineas
between all of these, I think the gentleman might eat
with a good conscious. Uh No serious pineapple discourse. Meanwhile,
in the seventeen seventies, the British explorer James Cook planted
(19:36):
pineapples in islands throughout the South Pacific, and Lutheran missionaries
introduced the pineapple to Australia in the eighteen thirties, where
it still grows, especially in Queensland. Yes. Meanwhile, as ship
technology improved throughout the eighteen hundreds, with fast sailing cutter
ships and steamships, pineapples began to be imported from the
(19:58):
Caribbean and s troll America to wealthy folks in New
York City, where the trend continued to spread. Um there
was an attempt to grow them in the United States
to avoid these high shipping costs. They were grown poorly
in Texas and California, and then in Florida a little
bit more successfully starting in the eight starting in eighteen
(20:19):
sixty in the Keys, and the most successfully in a
belt along South Florida's east coast stretching from Fort Pierced
down to Miami, which I find personally fascinating because I
lived in South Florida for a long time anyway. Um
that that happened up through the early twentieth century. Um,
but the plantations there wore out the soil, and that
plus South Florida's tendency to occasionally experience frost wiped out
(20:42):
the crop for good eventually. God. Also around the eighteen sixties,
pineapple from the Bahamas in Cuba was canned in Baltimore,
which was the canning center of America. I mean seriously,
the technology was fairly new and pretty expense of so
it was really all based in Baltimore and in terms
(21:03):
of US cannerying. But the pineapples canned around that time
were picked green in order to save them from rotting
during shipping, and they'll yellow every time. But like any
said earlier, they won't ripen, so they're not as tasty
as like a ripe pineapple. They kind of suck. Um
technicians in Baltimore developed the machines around that time that
(21:26):
core and sliced pineapples into the familiar rings, and that
more or less brings us to one of those companies
we love so much that's named for a real, actual
once living dude doll. So but first a quick break
for a word from our sponsor, and we're back, thank you, sponsor,
(21:58):
Okay sol Um. By this time in the eighteen hundreds,
California was importing so much pineapple from Hawaii, but pineapple
still didn't really take to the journey and frequently rotted
along the way. Um and an English horticulturists and Captain
(22:19):
John kid Will got the idea to can pineapple in
Hawaiian sell it in, but he was not the first.
Yeah this this wasn't the first dude to can pineapple. Yeah.
Um The US tariff on imported fruits made it pretty
much impossible for him to make a profit and he
shut down in which was too bad for him because
(22:43):
later that same year, the Hawaiian Kingdom was annexed by
the US after the Spanish American War and the tariff
was lifted. Too bad for him and bad for many
parties involved. If you want to know more about this,
check out US if he missed in History Classes podcasts
their episode about it. Ah. Yeah, it's a really intense
(23:04):
and fascinating story because because pineapples, or rather the agriculture
barons who controlled the pineapple plantations, had a hand in
overthrowing the Hawaiian monarchy, as a US commercial interest in
local farmland was increasing. Um and and kid Will also
was just an extremely thorough and or possibly obsessed scientist,
(23:26):
and he experimented with I think like thirty one different
strains of the plant from around the world, eventually selecting
the smooth cayenne varietal and improving the growing conditions for it.
So without kid Will, the pineapple might never have become
as globally popular and available as it has. So h yeah, checkouts,
checkout stuff he missed in history class for for all
(23:48):
all about that, because this episode is going to be
long enough as it is without us repeating all the
things that those incredible ladies say. Right. Yes, with Kidvill's
pineapple research and canning equipment in place, the industry was
easy enough to restart, and in nine hundred Jim Dole,
who was at the time twenty two years old and
knew nothing about canning, brought up sixty one acres of
(24:10):
land for growing pineapples during a homestead um expanse program
and then newly an ext republic of Hawaii. Yes, Doll
established the Hawaiian Pineapple Company in nineteen o one, and
by nineteen o three they had produced about nine cases
of pineapple. Despite having been called by the local press
(24:31):
quote a full hearty venture. Fool hardy, that's one of
those great words. It needs to come back. Um part
of the part of the success was was near luck really,
because sugarcane, which until all this was Hawaii's biggest crop,
doesn't do well at high elevations, so that high elevation
land was given over to the homesteaders and their pineapples.
(24:52):
Pineapples thrive at high elevations, sugarcane pops up again. The
pineapples still wasn't the easiest crop, and Dole operated at
a loss for several years in the beginning, which he
could weather due to his excellent connections. Like like, Dole's
second cousin was was governor of the territory of Hawaii
at the time. Yeah, I'm sure that didn't hurt. He was.
(25:16):
Dole was very proactive and pushing for new technologies, and
in nineteen thirteen this led to the invention of the
Ganaka machine by Dole employee Henry Ganaka. This machine could
remove the skin core and uh take off the ends
of pineapple in less than thirty seconds. Yeah that's frightening, okay.
(25:37):
In Dole produced one million cans of pineapple, and a
slightly improved version of the Ganaca machine is still used
to this day. Dole was also really good at marketing
his product, and a lot of new advertising ground was
being broken at the time. After a market crash in
seven Dolls Company and six other pineapple growers formed up
(25:58):
into the Hawaiian Pineapple Growers Association, and they would wind
up mounting the first generic product ad campaign in the
United States um for for the food processing industry. Before then,
you know, a specific brand or something like that might
have put out an ad campaign. This was the first
time that an association like that had formed together to
put out advertising for canned pineapple. That's it yeah, um
(26:24):
And it really worked and and was soon copied by
lots of other industries. And partly because of that, by
his business had taken off, and by nine Bill was
packing more pineapple than anyone else in the business, and
the pineapple was Hawaii's biggest industry during the nineteen twenties.
(26:45):
It was perceived as a bit of a fad saw
spawning culinary trends like the pineapple of side down cake right.
All of his popularity was probably also partially due to
the boom and air freight that started happening in the
nineteen twenties, which of is, made shipping much quicker and
easier though it wouldn't start becoming, it wouldn't be really
really widespread until after World War Two, and the pineapple
(27:09):
industry took a bit of a hit like most industries
during the Great Depression, which, just in case you don't know,
it started in nine Uh. It got so bad that
James Dole was forced to resign as president of the
Hawaiian Pineapple Company. However, their development of technology to produce
high quality canned pineapple juice in ninety three would help
(27:32):
them make up for the losses. Juice sales surged over
the next couple decades, and though Dole was the most profitable,
accounting for sevent of pineapples for the next seven decades. Yeah,
by the nineteen fifties, eight other companies had taken note
from Dole's success and set up shop in Hawaii. A
series of reorganizations and consolidations would would help Dole's company along.
(27:57):
And and side note here just something that I found
super interesting while I was doing this research. Among all
of the other growers and companies that started up in Hawaii,
there were a great number of people of Japanese ancestry
whose families had moved to the region as indentured sugar
laborers in the late eighteen hundreds. Let me just take
a moment and shake my fist at the sugar industry. Um.
(28:18):
After after these people completed their labor, a lot of
them moved into pineapple due to the better profits and
working conditions. Working conditions for pineapple are kind of kind
of terrible, so that's really saying something. At any rate, um,
seven to eight percent of pineapple lands were owned by
Japanese growers as of nineteen o eight, and by nine twenty,
as the industry was shifting and consolidating, almost eighty eight
(28:41):
percent of the small pineapple farms where Japanese run, they
were largely bought out by big companies over the next
few decades. But I don't know, just interesting immigrant story.
Note I thought I'm there. At any rate, yes, uh.
After World War Two, the pineapple industry spread the places
like Thailand and the Philippines where the labor costs were
(29:04):
way lower like nine flower hooray, exploitation of overseas populations
with fewer labor laws. As a result, the Hawaiian pineapple
industry saw a significant decline by the nineteen sixties, leading
to lots more consolidations. Those finally ended in the company
becoming known as dole Um. But despite attempts to innovade
(29:29):
around canning and shipping a fresher product, Doll's Canary and
Honolulu closed in del Monte left Hawaii in two thousand
and eight. Right, and most pineapple production in Hawaii today
is to satisfy local demand, and Hawaiian cuisine does still
regularly feature pineapple it's ingredient. Yes. Um, So that's a
(29:51):
very condensed and that's an extremely condensed history. There's definitely
years and years worth of material that we could that
we could tell you specifically about about Dole and his
company and the mob of the mafia and the yeah,
oh so many things. I feel like I feel like
there should be some kind of follow up episode about
some specific little little break off topics. There's like entire
(30:14):
chapters devoted just to pineapple juice in in in history
books about all of this, So that could happen, uh,
but not now right now. Uh, We're going to get into, um,
some of the depressing labor kind of issues, labor and
environmental issues surrounding pineapples. But first let's take a quick
(30:36):
break for a word from our sponsor. Oh, thank you sponsor,
and apologies for sometimes leading into your wonderful sponsorship with
a really depressing tags. Just has to happen sometimes keep
(31:01):
things interesting here, Yeah, but the depressing stuff is interesting,
so it makes people want to stick around. Okay, So
the pineapple is another one of those stories of just
a lack of corporate concern for environmental and worker conditions
in the phase of expanding profits. Corporation would never do
(31:22):
such a thing. No, never there, They're always look there.
Certainly wasn't an entire trope of cartoons in the nies
devoted to how ridiculous? Do you remember? Captain Planet? Were You?
Were you? That fern Gully the last reinforced that scared
me too. I still get this song that Tim Curry sings,
(31:43):
and that's stuck in my head sometimes I'm not going
to treat you with it right now later yeah, okay. So, um,
this in the pineapple industry is partially because one really
efficient way to grow pineapples is as a monoculture, which
means eliminated all the other plants in the area with herbicides.
Bugs and molds are also a problem, so add pesticides
(32:06):
and fungicides into the mix UM in the final product
in the pineapple that you're going to get in a
canner on your store shelf. These UH these substances come
through as legally allowable residues even here and in developed
nations UM, but they can be really disastrous to to
the local humans and ecosystem where they're grown. The chemicals
(32:28):
used on pineapples in their largest supplying country, Costa Rica,
are in fact totally illegal to use in Europe and
other parts of the world due to their links to cancer,
hormone disruption, and other chronic illnesses and local populations. As
of two thousand seven, the Costa Rican government had to
start importing water in tankers because the groundwater was deemed
(32:49):
unsafe for the for the populace to use and work
at conditions yeah uh in in Costa Rica UM. There
have been reports of undocumented in a prints from Nicaragua
filling upwards of six of the pineapple plantation jobs because
the labor is hard and the conditions are dangerous due
to that chemical exposure UM. But because the immigrants aren't citizens,
(33:12):
they can't participate in local unions and and other efforts
that are working to assert worker rights. Similar things have
gone on in the Philippines, particularly on dull plantations, and
to make matters worse, in Costa Rica, citizens who have
fought for better conditions have sometimes been met with forceful
resistance from the corporation's UM, mass firings and rehirings with
(33:35):
poorer contracts that exclude union members UM, and and even
some some people being being threatened. There's suspected beatings and
arson involved in these kind of matters. So if you
enjoy delicious pineapple, but you don't want to support that
kind of chicanery. Is a lighthearted word, but it means
(33:57):
what I mean it to mean right here. Um, if
you don't to support that kind of thing, what can
you do? You can buy fair trade certified pineapple if
you can find it. Corrps with that labeling are more
likely to have been growning conditions that prevent the need
for heavy chemical use through practices like crop rotation. UM,
They're they're more likely to have treat treated their workers fairly. UM.
(34:19):
This is also where some folks would recommend buying organic,
but that's a term in the US anyway. UM that
doesn't have a strong enough legal meaning to to make
a sure impact on the type of food that you're buying,
which we'll just have to do a whole other depressing
episode about. Yeah. Yeah, that's a that's a big one
(34:40):
that the more the more I learned about, the more
upset I am about humanity. So I'm looking forward to yeah,
looking forward to sharing that with you friends. UM, if
it makes you feel better, UM, go organic as well.
Agriculture is complicated and yeah, fair trade, a fair trade. Um.
(35:02):
Moving out of that into some things that are well,
some of them are less depressing. SpongeBob is totally not depressing. Yes,
uh so not to end on a well, I put
some ads some cheer to this. Um, this is our
pineapple culture snippet. Yeah, yes, so SpongeBob, obviously, at least
(35:25):
for me, lives in a pineapple under the sea. I
watched that through college. Oh my goodness. I actually I
actually had no I had never watched it before. And
I was trapped in this in this terrible um not
not trivia, what's the one where your partner depends on
you to to be able to guess anyway? One of
those games? And and she was she was like just
(35:47):
staring at me, and she was like SpongeBob lives in
one of these under the sea, and I was like
a c cucumber. I don't know. It was a very
painful game at any rate. Cultural points, SpongeBob um also
a tiki bar culture. That boom of pineapple juice sales
in the early nineteen thirties may have had to do
(36:09):
with um with with prohibition ending that year and with
the rise of tiki bar culture starting in nineteen thirty four.
That's when Don Beach, which he renamed himself after having
been born Ernest Raymond Beaumont gant okay Um Don Beach
returned from rum from rum running in the South Pacific
(36:31):
and opened Don's Beachcomber Cafe in California in four um.
It became an it's spot for Hollywood Royalty and and
started a fad for all things vaguely and or offensively
Polynesian themed, and the popularity of that would stretch through
the early nineteen seventies and employ just really a great
deal of pineapples. Tiki bar culture is in the midst
(36:52):
of a resurgence, as you may have noticed, and we'll
have to do the speaking of other homework. I'm giving
us like we'll totally have to do a whole other
EPI said about the kitchen nostalgia and appropriation and other
weirdness that goes along with this completely delightful thing. Right,
do you get cravings for like my ties on a
(37:12):
frequent basis? No? No, I do. I yeah sweet, I
thought made sweet drinks, but well made peanut colada, m M,
I know. Sorry. Um. Recently a student in Scotland but
(37:34):
left a pineapple at an art exhibit, hoping it would
be mistaken for art. And sure enough he returned four
days later. Uh, and there was a glass case around
his pineapple. People were looking at it thought it was
modern art. I love that. That's him. He didn't include
the glass case. He just he just left a pineapple,
dropped a pineapple off. Yeah, it was like, uh kind
(37:55):
of elevated. Um, it's not a table but like a
pedestal share And he left it there and when he
came back someone had put a class case. It was
a heavy glass case that took four people to move.
So yeah, wow, they thought it was art. And actually
I looked at it and I appreciated the pineapples beauty
(38:17):
in a way I hadn't previously I mean, I suppose
it became art at that point, so I was appreciating
it for sure. Speaking of appreciation, let's let's do some
listener mail because we were that. That's about what we've
got to say about pineapples. So both of these are
in response to our juicing episode, and this first one
(38:40):
is from Mica. Micah wrote in with I am actually
very thankful that you both did an episode on juice cleanses,
having been taught about the dangers of juice cleanses and
my organismal biology class at Georgia Tech, Go Jackets, also
my alma mater. Side note, um, I understand how important
(39:01):
it is that people be informed of the risk that
come with this diet. What surprises me is that even
those who have the awareness of what these diets due
to your health, can still somehow justify trying them. There
are some people who will even practice fasting three or
four days out of the week, not for spiritual or
religious purposes, but out of a sincere belief are desperate
(39:22):
hope that it will lead to permanent weight loss, which
is far from being a consequence of regular fasting. I
think it really speaks to the insecurities we experience when
it comes to our physical appearance and the links we
will go to in order to feel comfortable in our skin.
Our susceptibility to deceptions seems to be disproportionately high in
(39:43):
this area to how connected it is the Western concept
of self worth and how little regulation there is when
it comes to promotion of these diets and their effects
on health in America. My hope is that changing ideas
of health and wellness will lead to a rejection of
these diets and bring us closer to a unified movement
towards balancing our diets and decreased consumption of unhealthy food
(40:08):
and harmful dieting practices. Maybe then we can start to
feel better about our bodies, not because of their physical
appearance per se, but because of how good we feel
on the inside. Yeah. Oh, that's what we wanted to
We wanted to read that one because it just summed
up how we felt about it, so so so beautifully. Yeah,
and I responded with like, um, this is all very
(40:29):
important to both Florena and I have strong thoughts saying
opinions on this, and I'm sure we will do an episode,
but it is It's crazy how you can convince yourself,
even if you know, even if you know, you know, yeah,
it just can't work. It can't work. But then just anything,
(40:52):
just try it, Just do it. Just maybe ye. Yes,
So thank you for writing in Mica and we will
definitely come back to that at some point. Absolutely um our.
Other note about the juicing episode came in from Chris.
The welch's history as an anti alcohol alternative really made
me laugh since as a home wine maker, I, like
(41:14):
most of my peers, recommend anyone who wants to try
out home wine making starts with frozen welch is on juice.
It has no preservatives, and it's cheap, allowing for a
gallon batch of wine for about ten dollars. It's a
great do. I really want to do this batch for newbies.
While it's never going to be mistaken for Torlatto, I
(41:36):
don't know things about wine, it's better than your average
bottle of two buck chuck. That's great. Yeah, I also
I want to I want to go try that now
I know me too. We should do it. Good stuff
test Oh oh yeah, there there you go. Test test
of the episode. We haven't had one yet, okay. Oh
and the pizza bonus for this one is really easy.
(41:58):
Oh pineapple pizza. Oh, I always loved pineapple pizza, Lauren.
But no, I'll go, I'll have to go check out.
I'll have to go. Um see if I can get
a food allergist type human too, guest, guest or inturologist
of some kind to help me figure out what's going on. Yeah,
(42:18):
because if you could be having canned juice and fruit,
I'm dubious because I feel like I've had a baked
good that was sweetened with pineapple juice that still made
me super sick. So I don't know. That feels like probably,
I don't know, probably, yeah, but maybe it was fresh juice.
I'll get tested. We'll keep our fingers crossed. Absolutely. Thank you. Um.
(42:42):
If you guys would like to write in with any
other health advice or or or anything else that you
would like to tell us or share with us, oh,
you can do that. Yes. We have an email at
food stuff at housetaff forks dot com. We also have
a Twitter at food stuff h s W and an
(43:02):
Instagram at food stuff Uh. Yeah. We share some videos
and pictures of the adventures that we've been having. Yeah,
come check it out. Definitely let us know what you think.
Um and yeah, we hope lots more good things are
coming your way.
Hello, and welcome to food Stuff. I'm Anny Eeries and
I'm Lauren Block obam, and today we're adjusting our microphones
and also talking about pineapple. Yep, another food that Lauren
can't have. Yeah, and so delicious do you remember, Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
This This is one that I actually get some of
the most sympathy out of other people for. When I
(00:29):
mentioned that, people are like, I'll be like listing things
off and I get to pineapple and they're like, oh no,
really what how I feel the same way when people
tell me they don't like pineapple, I'm like affronted. That
can't be true. But thanks to listener Aaron, we know
it might be an intolerant to the enzyme bromelaine, which
(00:49):
is only in fresh pineapple, meaning canned pineapple and juice
could be fine, could be fine if that's the problem
that I'm having. Bromelaine, by the way, is broken down
by heat, which is applied as part of the ending
and juice making process, which is why it's not in
canned juice and fruit. Right, And we got a lot
of request for pineapple when I mentioned in passing that
(01:11):
the history of pineapple might be a lot of fun,
but I had no idea and spoiler alert, lots of fun.
It's it's more fun than some other things. Some of
it's really fun, some of it I love. Yes, it
is awesome. But before we get into that, let's let's
do our basic like, like, what is it? Yes, pineapples
are a tropical fruit and their mother plant actually looks
(01:33):
really cool. Yeah, if you want to look it up. Um,
it's made up of a bunch of different small fruits
that have combined around the core. That's what all the
segments or eyes on the fruit are there. There evidence
of the individual berries that all grow from individual flowers
on the plant's single central stem. Right, I had no idea.
(01:54):
Yeah that's great. Yeah, it's really it's really cool and
like only a little bit like chron in burgean. Yes,
I've heard that word three times a day. That's the
type of day I'm having. Anyway. They can grow up
to one point five meters or about four point nine
ft tall, which is also larger than I would have guessed,
(02:15):
and pineapple harvesting still has to be done largely by hand.
It takes about two years for pineapple to grow, and
harvesters walk through the crop in these thick suits to
protect themselves from those spikey leaves. And once the crop
is harvested, the field is quote knocked down to make
way for a new growing cycle. Yeah, because they kind
(02:36):
of grow there's sort of weed like at a certain point.
So if you don't totally knock the field down, then
you'll get weird, little errant plants that aren't aren't as
high quality is the stuff that you're putting in there
on purpose. Also in order to match demand year round,
pineapples can be forced to flower through chemical means, and
so that's how we keep up a fresh supply of
pineapple all year. I see. And if you're looking for
(03:00):
a fresh pineapple at the store and you're wondering, well,
how laural do I know what is a good pineapple?
That there's something I have thought to myself. You want
to look for one that has green leaves that don't
really fall off when you pull them in a firm body.
And unlike most fruits, pineapples don't ripen more once they've
been picked, because they draw their sweetness from their starch space.
(03:23):
But generally, though, the sooner you eat them, the better.
And if you cut it up, sort and the refrigerator.
That does go bad pretty quickly, I think, but unto themselves,
they can hang out for a while. And you've probably
only had one type of pineapple, and that's the m
D two cultivar, which is a hybrid that was developed
to preserve the sweetness while also lowering the acidity and
(03:46):
preventing browning, which was a problem for the previously most
popular fresh pineapple type called smooth cayenne, which makes up
more than half of the m D two hybrid. Yeah.
But yeah, there's way more variety, more varieties. I never
I had never known. No, And there is a place
in Hawaii were they uh sell at least twenty different varieties.
(04:10):
I remember eating the different types. What did they taste like?
Were they all basically pineapple? Or I know they have
different taste I think. Um. I believe the smooth cayenne
was the sweetest, So I imagine that these varieties would
be listed less sweet. Yeah. I would love to try
different type of pineapple, right, Oh? Or I mean I
(04:31):
guess I wouldn't, because I would try a way that
was both not gonna make you jealous, but also describe
the flavor accurately. It would be difficult. It would the
pineapples that we eat our seedless, because you grow a
new pineapple by rooting a piece of an existing plant. Yeah,
and to form the seed you need pollination, and hummingbirds
(04:55):
are the most frequent pollinators. But seed formation isn't great
for the quality of which is why Hawaii prohibits importation
of hummingbirds. No hummingbirds in Hawaii. No, And who's importing
humming I don't. I don't know. Just yeah, like like, hey, Bob,
I need twenty hummingbirds. Steps. I'm not sure why that
was in that accent anyway. Um. They're pretty easy to
(05:16):
grow on your own, though. Yeah. You just take the
crown from the plant, put it somewhere drying dar for
a week so it'll harden, and then in an eight
inch porespot with good drain age, will lay down a
layer of gravel and then a layer of light soil
and composted the material. Oh my goodness, and both just
put our huma uh and from there, yeah, you just
(05:37):
let it grow and once it starts to grow, you
want to move it to a twelve inch pop same conditions.
I'm determined to try this. I can't believe it would
be this easy, but I'll find out. That's I've heard
that it can take a while to to get it
to to really take. But right, but there's this nice
fellow who hangs out sometimes in your your decab farmers market,
which is a local market around here in Atlanta, who
(06:00):
you'll just hang out near the pineapples and kind of
like wait for someone to come up to the pineapples
and then tell them about this. It's it's actually very
sweet like the pineapple. Next time I go there, maybe
I will run into him. Look out for him. Yeah. Uh.
Similarly to cauliflower, the pineapple is another example of the
golden ratio in nature. Yeah, and when when it's fresh,
(06:23):
it is pretty healthy. It's high in vitamin C and manganese,
especially um, which helps your immune system and bone strength,
among loads of other things. It is also chock full
of fructose though, so you know, just in moderation. Right.
Aforementioned bromelaine, which is an enzyme a pineapple. It can
be used as a meat tenderizer and cut fruit preserver,
(06:46):
and it's sometimes used as an anti inflammatory. There aren't
many studies or any like conclusively, right, Um, the researchers
are currently looking at bromolines can't or fighting properties as well.
I think that I did not know unripe, but pineapple
is toxic and can cause just really bad diarrhea and
(07:09):
vomiting kind of issues, right. Um. Also, apparently, eating a
lot of pineapple cores um, which not everyone eats but
they are edible, can lead to the formation of something
called fiber balls in the digestive tract. That sounds awful.
I don't know what it means, and I don't honestly
want to. But speaking of fiber, fibers from the leaves
(07:31):
of pineapple are sometimes woven into embroidery, thread, cloth, and
paper in places like Brazil and the Philippines. Despite its
association with Hawaii, Hawai is not the top producer um,
not anymore at least, and it's not even where they're
native to. No no uh. Instead, and the top producers
(07:51):
were Costa Rica, Brazil, and the Philippines, with a total
worldwide production equalling five point four million tons and behind
apple sauce and peaches, pineapple is the most canned fruit
and behind the Pearl Harbor bombing site, the Dull pineapple
plantation is the most visited tourist attraction in Hawaii, as
(08:15):
pineapple industry was a nine billion dollar industry. It's a
lot of pineapples. That's nothing to sneeze at pineapple. Um,
so how did the pineapple grow to become this massive industry? Well,
in order to determine that, we have to go thousands
of years back to stuff that we're not entirely certain
(08:37):
about history. Uh huh um. So we know that pineapples
originated in South America, most likely in the region of
like Brazil or Paraguay some somewhere around there, and they
were domesticated as long as as six thousand years ago
or more, possibly by the Two Pie people and or
(08:59):
by the Guarini people, and from there they spread throughout
the continent to Central America, Mexico and the West Indies
and or Caribbean, depending on what you would like to
call it. The plant was called by the locals um
the nana, which could mean excellent fruit. I've also seen
its meaning listed as perfumed, but either way, this is
(09:20):
where we get the scientific name for pineapples, which is
ananas almos. In addition to being eaten raw or cooked,
pineapple juice was also fermented to make wine and liquors.
And it was and in some regions still is used
medicinally due to that bromlean content for a whole bunch
of different things, as a cure for gas or intestinal
(09:41):
parasites and other stobdach problems. Um, to cure skin problems
like corns and worts, to stimulate menstrual flow, and to
induce abortion. Okay, okay, I didn't see that one coming. Uh.
Non edible cultivars were grown for the strong fiber in
their leaves aforementioned still used in like embroidery and find
(10:03):
fine goods like that um way back when was woven
to make stuff like clothing and hammocks and fishing nets. Wow,
quite useful. The pineapple, it seems in four Christopher Columbus. Mr.
Christopher Columbus he stopped up a couple of times. He
stumbled upon the pineapple when he stopped on Guadalupe, and
(10:28):
he called it Pinia de Indies or pine of the Indians.
In his journal um. He described it as resembling a
pine cone, but a sweet fruit with an apple's firmness.
He returned to Spain with some pineapples, where it was
a huge hit. People loved how sweet it was. I mean,
(10:49):
in our sweet tooth. It's really kind of shaped history
and just the way I did not anticipate very intensely. Yeah. Anyway,
when they tried to grow their own pineapples in Europe
are more particularly in England, they found little to no
success due to the non tropical weather for this tropical plant.
Holland did have some some success, however, and Dutchman Pierre
(11:11):
de la Court Vandervoort sorry about it Um is credited
with growing the first pineapple in Europe in sixteen fifty eight. Um.
So they had to import them, which was crazy, time
consuming and expensive, and the fruit often arrived bruised and
or rotten. Yeah, because without refrigeration, it's a really difficult
thing to do. And and pineapples can't survive frost. Is
(11:34):
is the thing about growing them that they do best
in temperatures above sixty five degrees fahrenheit a k a.
Like eighteen degrees celsius. Other famous dudes who were roaming
around the oceans Magellan. Yeah, Magellan got in the pineapple
game after he discovered them in Brazil in fifty nineteen,
which increased the import of pineapples into Europe Um they
(11:57):
often arrived candied or covered in syrup. Oh since the
transport of the fruit was so difficult, and during the
sixteenth century Spain and Portugal introduced the pineapple to places
like oh Why. Although the first recorded mention of it
was in um Guam, the Philippines Zimbabwe fifteen fifty, in India,
(12:19):
in China and South Africa in sixteen fifty, and it's
around this time the word pineapple first appeared in print
um and it got its name thanks to its resemblance
to a pine cone. Previously, pineapple was used to describe
pine cones, and the word pine cone also popped up
in Texas the first time in sixteen sixty four, which
(12:39):
makes sense. Also how how disappointing would it be if
you heard the word pineapple, you picked up a pine
cone and thought maybe I could eat this somehow and
you just can't know. I guess you could use it
to smoke other foods that would be delicious. There are
other uses, for sure. Due to the high cost of
(13:01):
refined sugar, the low availability of sweets, and pineapple's rarity,
it very quickly became a symbol of wealth. King Charles
the Second commissioned a painting of himself receiving a pineapple
from his gardener as as a display of I don't
know what what would you put it as? Like wealthitude,
(13:25):
royal nous. Yeah. Royals would often give them as as
gifts when they were looking to just super impress somebody. Yeah,
and you should look up the painting because it's great. Um.
And in seventeen hundreds Colonial America, pineapple's imported from the
Caribbean islands, due to how perishable and rare they were,
(13:45):
could cost as much as eight thousand dollars in today's money.
Eight dollars. That's a very expensive piece of fruit. And
since much of the colonies were like the car isn't
worth that much? Please please continue crazy um. Since much
(14:05):
of the colonies at the time were like small hubs
of activity, a lot of the entertaining went on in
people's homes, and when well off colonists wanted to show
off just how well off they were um and also hospitable.
Also um, they would display a pineapple at dinner parties.
(14:26):
But like display, display, like, it's main use was decoration.
It was the center of these big fruit and food
piles and mounds and it'd be revealed at the when
the moment was right, they would throw open the doors
and behold and behold, we have all of this food,
and it's crowned by the majestic pineapple. And they'd only
(14:50):
eat them once they started to go back. No, that's
so sad for the pineapple, I know. And for those
porcels who couldn't afford a pineapple. There was still hope
for you. Uh you there was a pineapple rental market.
Is ok? Yes, you heard that correctly. There's a pineapple
rental market and the enterprising pineapple sellers and it's usually
(15:14):
Baker's who used pineapples and desserts, and they were pretty
in the loop about who was having dinner parties so
they could they knew who to approach, and they would
print out pineapples before selling them, and people would carry
them around at parties. I can't imagine a more comfortable
accessive being someone who was held onto a pineapple for
(15:37):
like a decent amount of time during that one photo
shoot that we did. Like I can say that that's
not that wouldn't be my first choice. No, uh, better
than spiky pain melon, Yes, by far, spiky pain melon.
I kind of want to just carry on a pineapple
for a day and see what kind of comments I get. Um.
(16:00):
But anyway, George Washington named it his favorite chocolate fruit
after trying it in Barbados in seventee. And it's around
this time in the seventeen sixties that the pineapple as
the symbol of friendship and hospitality started become really trendy,
super trending. Yeah, pineapples are on neck it's tablecloths, wallpaper, bedpost,
(16:21):
pineapple shaped dishes. They were on the gate post outside
of residences, on the backs of chairs, on weather veins
of important public buildings, pineapple shaped candelobros and pictures, door
and archers and the Caribbean, you'd put a pineapple or
a pineapple crown outside your door to represent friendship. They
were everywhere, and you can still see evidence of it
(16:41):
to this day. I hear it's pretty prevalent in Colonial Williamsburg.
I've never been o me, neither um that there was
even a huge pineapple pineapple shaped bit of architecture that
was put up in uh in Scotland and Dunmore Park
in seventeen sixty one. It much like one of those
fruit piles at a fancy party. It's just the giant
(17:04):
crown right at the center top of this building. Um,
and the building below it he used to house a
a hothouse, which is part of what would make pineapples
able to be to be grown in more places. But
it's it's still there. You can still go visited. I
would love to. It's really majestic. Take a second in
(17:25):
google it, y'all. There's a reason the pineapple is called
the king of fruits. Um, and that's not in either.
Foods were pressed into pineapples. Other foods were made to
look like pineapple, like cakes, cookies, candies, gents, and molds.
I mean, it doesn't fit the alliteration, but it's still nice. Yeah.
(17:47):
And also, uh, I had a resurgence in the fifties
and sixties. Oh, absolutely, probably due partially to tiki culture,
which I have a note about much later. Right. So,
going back to Europe, they hadn't given up on growing
their own pineapple, No, and with the advent of the
(18:07):
hot house in the seventeenth century, pineapples could be grown
more widely in Europe. UM. The first recorded one was
Duchess of Cleveland's hot house in St. Two, from which
she gifted a pineapple to King Charles the second, which
is how the aforementioned painting came about. But even with houses,
pineapples couldn't be produced on a large scale, and the
(18:29):
cost was still high due to the equipment and labor required,
so high, in fact, that owning one of these hot
houses meant for growing pineapples, which were called pine ears
or pineapple stoves. Became a symbol for wealth along with
the pineapple. Wow, um, all right, yeah, you know cool?
(18:50):
Look at my pineary how much money I've got? Allegedly,
in seventeen seventy nine, the pineapple was even used in
political discourse, with an egalitarian dissenter saying, what's right has
one man to eat a pineapple for which he gave
a guinea when another is starving for want of a
halfpenny worth of bread? And then his His opponent responded saying,
(19:14):
how many depends on their share of the guinea paid
for the pineapple? When you shall have divided the guineas
between all of these, I think the gentleman might eat
with a good conscious. Uh No serious pineapple discourse. Meanwhile,
in the seventeen seventies, the British explorer James Cook planted
(19:36):
pineapples in islands throughout the South Pacific, and Lutheran missionaries
introduced the pineapple to Australia in the eighteen thirties, where
it still grows, especially in Queensland. Yes. Meanwhile, as ship
technology improved throughout the eighteen hundreds, with fast sailing cutter
ships and steamships, pineapples began to be imported from the
(19:58):
Caribbean and s troll America to wealthy folks in New
York City, where the trend continued to spread. Um there
was an attempt to grow them in the United States
to avoid these high shipping costs. They were grown poorly
in Texas and California, and then in Florida a little
bit more successfully starting in the eight starting in eighteen
(20:19):
sixty in the Keys, and the most successfully in a
belt along South Florida's east coast stretching from Fort Pierced
down to Miami, which I find personally fascinating because I
lived in South Florida for a long time anyway. Um
that that happened up through the early twentieth century. Um,
but the plantations there wore out the soil, and that
plus South Florida's tendency to occasionally experience frost wiped out
(20:42):
the crop for good eventually. God. Also around the eighteen sixties,
pineapple from the Bahamas in Cuba was canned in Baltimore,
which was the canning center of America. I mean seriously,
the technology was fairly new and pretty expense of so
it was really all based in Baltimore and in terms
(21:03):
of US cannerying. But the pineapples canned around that time
were picked green in order to save them from rotting
during shipping, and they'll yellow every time. But like any
said earlier, they won't ripen, so they're not as tasty
as like a ripe pineapple. They kind of suck. Um
technicians in Baltimore developed the machines around that time that
(21:26):
core and sliced pineapples into the familiar rings, and that
more or less brings us to one of those companies
we love so much that's named for a real, actual
once living dude doll. So but first a quick break
for a word from our sponsor, and we're back, thank you, sponsor,
(21:58):
Okay sol Um. By this time in the eighteen hundreds,
California was importing so much pineapple from Hawaii, but pineapple
still didn't really take to the journey and frequently rotted
along the way. Um and an English horticulturists and Captain
(22:19):
John kid Will got the idea to can pineapple in
Hawaiian sell it in, but he was not the first.
Yeah this this wasn't the first dude to can pineapple. Yeah.
Um The US tariff on imported fruits made it pretty
much impossible for him to make a profit and he
shut down in which was too bad for him because
(22:43):
later that same year, the Hawaiian Kingdom was annexed by
the US after the Spanish American War and the tariff
was lifted. Too bad for him and bad for many
parties involved. If you want to know more about this,
check out US if he missed in History Classes podcasts
their episode about it. Ah. Yeah, it's a really intense
(23:04):
and fascinating story because because pineapples, or rather the agriculture
barons who controlled the pineapple plantations, had a hand in
overthrowing the Hawaiian monarchy, as a US commercial interest in
local farmland was increasing. Um and and kid Will also
was just an extremely thorough and or possibly obsessed scientist,
(23:26):
and he experimented with I think like thirty one different
strains of the plant from around the world, eventually selecting
the smooth cayenne varietal and improving the growing conditions for it.
So without kid Will, the pineapple might never have become
as globally popular and available as it has. So h yeah, checkouts,
checkout stuff he missed in history class for for all
(23:48):
all about that, because this episode is going to be
long enough as it is without us repeating all the
things that those incredible ladies say. Right. Yes, with Kidvill's
pineapple research and canning equipment in place, the industry was
easy enough to restart, and in nine hundred Jim Dole,
who was at the time twenty two years old and
knew nothing about canning, brought up sixty one acres of
(24:10):
land for growing pineapples during a homestead um expanse program
and then newly an ext republic of Hawaii. Yes, Doll
established the Hawaiian Pineapple Company in nineteen o one, and
by nineteen o three they had produced about nine cases
of pineapple. Despite having been called by the local press
(24:31):
quote a full hearty venture. Fool hardy, that's one of
those great words. It needs to come back. Um part
of the part of the success was was near luck really,
because sugarcane, which until all this was Hawaii's biggest crop,
doesn't do well at high elevations, so that high elevation
land was given over to the homesteaders and their pineapples.
(24:52):
Pineapples thrive at high elevations, sugarcane pops up again. The
pineapples still wasn't the easiest crop, and Dole operated at
a loss for several years in the beginning, which he
could weather due to his excellent connections. Like like, Dole's
second cousin was was governor of the territory of Hawaii
at the time. Yeah, I'm sure that didn't hurt. He was.
(25:16):
Dole was very proactive and pushing for new technologies, and
in nineteen thirteen this led to the invention of the
Ganaka machine by Dole employee Henry Ganaka. This machine could
remove the skin core and uh take off the ends
of pineapple in less than thirty seconds. Yeah that's frightening, okay.
(25:37):
In Dole produced one million cans of pineapple, and a
slightly improved version of the Ganaca machine is still used
to this day. Dole was also really good at marketing
his product, and a lot of new advertising ground was
being broken at the time. After a market crash in
seven Dolls Company and six other pineapple growers formed up
(25:58):
into the Hawaiian Pineapple Growers Association, and they would wind
up mounting the first generic product ad campaign in the
United States um for for the food processing industry. Before then,
you know, a specific brand or something like that might
have put out an ad campaign. This was the first
time that an association like that had formed together to
put out advertising for canned pineapple. That's it yeah, um
(26:24):
And it really worked and and was soon copied by
lots of other industries. And partly because of that, by
his business had taken off, and by nine Bill was
packing more pineapple than anyone else in the business, and
the pineapple was Hawaii's biggest industry during the nineteen twenties.
(26:45):
It was perceived as a bit of a fad saw
spawning culinary trends like the pineapple of side down cake right.
All of his popularity was probably also partially due to
the boom and air freight that started happening in the
nineteen twenties, which of is, made shipping much quicker and
easier though it wouldn't start becoming, it wouldn't be really
really widespread until after World War Two, and the pineapple
(27:09):
industry took a bit of a hit like most industries
during the Great Depression, which, just in case you don't know,
it started in nine Uh. It got so bad that
James Dole was forced to resign as president of the
Hawaiian Pineapple Company. However, their development of technology to produce
high quality canned pineapple juice in ninety three would help
(27:32):
them make up for the losses. Juice sales surged over
the next couple decades, and though Dole was the most profitable,
accounting for sevent of pineapples for the next seven decades. Yeah,
by the nineteen fifties, eight other companies had taken note
from Dole's success and set up shop in Hawaii. A
series of reorganizations and consolidations would would help Dole's company along.
(27:57):
And and side note here just something that I found
super interesting while I was doing this research. Among all
of the other growers and companies that started up in Hawaii,
there were a great number of people of Japanese ancestry
whose families had moved to the region as indentured sugar
laborers in the late eighteen hundreds. Let me just take
a moment and shake my fist at the sugar industry. Um.
(28:18):
After after these people completed their labor, a lot of
them moved into pineapple due to the better profits and
working conditions. Working conditions for pineapple are kind of kind
of terrible, so that's really saying something. At any rate, um,
seven to eight percent of pineapple lands were owned by
Japanese growers as of nineteen o eight, and by nine twenty,
as the industry was shifting and consolidating, almost eighty eight
(28:41):
percent of the small pineapple farms where Japanese run, they
were largely bought out by big companies over the next
few decades. But I don't know, just interesting immigrant story.
Note I thought I'm there. At any rate, yes, uh.
After World War Two, the pineapple industry spread the places
like Thailand and the Philippines where the labor costs were
(29:04):
way lower like nine flower hooray, exploitation of overseas populations
with fewer labor laws. As a result, the Hawaiian pineapple
industry saw a significant decline by the nineteen sixties, leading
to lots more consolidations. Those finally ended in the company
becoming known as dole Um. But despite attempts to innovade
(29:29):
around canning and shipping a fresher product, Doll's Canary and
Honolulu closed in del Monte left Hawaii in two thousand
and eight. Right, and most pineapple production in Hawaii today
is to satisfy local demand, and Hawaiian cuisine does still
regularly feature pineapple it's ingredient. Yes. Um, So that's a
(29:51):
very condensed and that's an extremely condensed history. There's definitely
years and years worth of material that we could that
we could tell you specifically about about Dole and his
company and the mob of the mafia and the yeah,
oh so many things. I feel like I feel like
there should be some kind of follow up episode about
some specific little little break off topics. There's like entire
(30:14):
chapters devoted just to pineapple juice in in in history
books about all of this, So that could happen, uh,
but not now right now. Uh, We're going to get into, um,
some of the depressing labor kind of issues, labor and
environmental issues surrounding pineapples. But first let's take a quick
(30:36):
break for a word from our sponsor. Oh, thank you sponsor,
and apologies for sometimes leading into your wonderful sponsorship with
a really depressing tags. Just has to happen sometimes keep
(31:01):
things interesting here, Yeah, but the depressing stuff is interesting,
so it makes people want to stick around. Okay, So
the pineapple is another one of those stories of just
a lack of corporate concern for environmental and worker conditions
in the phase of expanding profits. Corporation would never do
(31:22):
such a thing. No, never there, They're always look there.
Certainly wasn't an entire trope of cartoons in the nies
devoted to how ridiculous? Do you remember? Captain Planet? Were You?
Were you? That fern Gully the last reinforced that scared
me too. I still get this song that Tim Curry sings,
(31:43):
and that's stuck in my head sometimes I'm not going
to treat you with it right now later yeah, okay. So, um,
this in the pineapple industry is partially because one really
efficient way to grow pineapples is as a monoculture, which
means eliminated all the other plants in the area with herbicides.
Bugs and molds are also a problem, so add pesticides
(32:06):
and fungicides into the mix UM in the final product
in the pineapple that you're going to get in a
canner on your store shelf. These UH these substances come
through as legally allowable residues even here and in developed
nations UM, but they can be really disastrous to to
the local humans and ecosystem where they're grown. The chemicals
(32:28):
used on pineapples in their largest supplying country, Costa Rica,
are in fact totally illegal to use in Europe and
other parts of the world due to their links to cancer,
hormone disruption, and other chronic illnesses and local populations. As
of two thousand seven, the Costa Rican government had to
start importing water in tankers because the groundwater was deemed
(32:49):
unsafe for the for the populace to use and work
at conditions yeah uh in in Costa Rica UM. There
have been reports of undocumented in a prints from Nicaragua
filling upwards of six of the pineapple plantation jobs because
the labor is hard and the conditions are dangerous due
to that chemical exposure UM. But because the immigrants aren't citizens,
(33:12):
they can't participate in local unions and and other efforts
that are working to assert worker rights. Similar things have
gone on in the Philippines, particularly on dull plantations, and
to make matters worse, in Costa Rica, citizens who have
fought for better conditions have sometimes been met with forceful
resistance from the corporation's UM, mass firings and rehirings with
(33:35):
poorer contracts that exclude union members UM, and and even
some some people being being threatened. There's suspected beatings and
arson involved in these kind of matters. So if you
enjoy delicious pineapple, but you don't want to support that
kind of chicanery. Is a lighthearted word, but it means
(33:57):
what I mean it to mean right here. Um, if
you don't to support that kind of thing, what can
you do? You can buy fair trade certified pineapple if
you can find it. Corrps with that labeling are more
likely to have been growning conditions that prevent the need
for heavy chemical use through practices like crop rotation. UM,
They're they're more likely to have treat treated their workers fairly. UM.
(34:19):
This is also where some folks would recommend buying organic,
but that's a term in the US anyway. UM that
doesn't have a strong enough legal meaning to to make
a sure impact on the type of food that you're buying,
which we'll just have to do a whole other depressing
episode about. Yeah. Yeah, that's a that's a big one
(34:40):
that the more the more I learned about, the more
upset I am about humanity. So I'm looking forward to yeah,
looking forward to sharing that with you friends. UM, if
it makes you feel better, UM, go organic as well.
Agriculture is complicated and yeah, fair trade, a fair trade. Um.
(35:02):
Moving out of that into some things that are well,
some of them are less depressing. SpongeBob is totally not depressing. Yes,
uh so not to end on a well, I put
some ads some cheer to this. Um, this is our
pineapple culture snippet. Yeah, yes, so SpongeBob, obviously, at least
(35:25):
for me, lives in a pineapple under the sea. I
watched that through college. Oh my goodness. I actually I
actually had no I had never watched it before. And
I was trapped in this in this terrible um not
not trivia, what's the one where your partner depends on
you to to be able to guess anyway? One of
those games? And and she was she was like just
(35:47):
staring at me, and she was like SpongeBob lives in
one of these under the sea, and I was like
a c cucumber. I don't know. It was a very
painful game at any rate. Cultural points, SpongeBob um also
a tiki bar culture. That boom of pineapple juice sales
in the early nineteen thirties may have had to do
(36:09):
with um with with prohibition ending that year and with
the rise of tiki bar culture starting in nineteen thirty four.
That's when Don Beach, which he renamed himself after having
been born Ernest Raymond Beaumont gant okay Um Don Beach
returned from rum from rum running in the South Pacific
(36:31):
and opened Don's Beachcomber Cafe in California in four um.
It became an it's spot for Hollywood Royalty and and
started a fad for all things vaguely and or offensively
Polynesian themed, and the popularity of that would stretch through
the early nineteen seventies and employ just really a great
deal of pineapples. Tiki bar culture is in the midst
(36:52):
of a resurgence, as you may have noticed, and we'll
have to do the speaking of other homework. I'm giving
us like we'll totally have to do a whole other
EPI said about the kitchen nostalgia and appropriation and other
weirdness that goes along with this completely delightful thing. Right,
do you get cravings for like my ties on a
(37:12):
frequent basis? No? No, I do. I yeah sweet, I
thought made sweet drinks, but well made peanut colada, m M,
I know. Sorry. Um. Recently a student in Scotland but
(37:34):
left a pineapple at an art exhibit, hoping it would
be mistaken for art. And sure enough he returned four
days later. Uh, and there was a glass case around
his pineapple. People were looking at it thought it was
modern art. I love that. That's him. He didn't include
the glass case. He just he just left a pineapple,
dropped a pineapple off. Yeah, it was like, uh kind
(37:55):
of elevated. Um, it's not a table but like a
pedestal share And he left it there and when he
came back someone had put a class case. It was
a heavy glass case that took four people to move.
So yeah, wow, they thought it was art. And actually
I looked at it and I appreciated the pineapples beauty
(38:17):
in a way I hadn't previously I mean, I suppose
it became art at that point, so I was appreciating
it for sure. Speaking of appreciation, let's let's do some
listener mail because we were that. That's about what we've
got to say about pineapples. So both of these are
in response to our juicing episode, and this first one
(38:40):
is from Mica. Micah wrote in with I am actually
very thankful that you both did an episode on juice cleanses,
having been taught about the dangers of juice cleanses and
my organismal biology class at Georgia Tech, Go Jackets, also
my alma mater. Side note, um, I understand how important
(39:01):
it is that people be informed of the risk that
come with this diet. What surprises me is that even
those who have the awareness of what these diets due
to your health, can still somehow justify trying them. There
are some people who will even practice fasting three or
four days out of the week, not for spiritual or
religious purposes, but out of a sincere belief are desperate
(39:22):
hope that it will lead to permanent weight loss, which
is far from being a consequence of regular fasting. I
think it really speaks to the insecurities we experience when
it comes to our physical appearance and the links we
will go to in order to feel comfortable in our skin.
Our susceptibility to deceptions seems to be disproportionately high in
(39:43):
this area to how connected it is the Western concept
of self worth and how little regulation there is when
it comes to promotion of these diets and their effects
on health in America. My hope is that changing ideas
of health and wellness will lead to a rejection of
these diets and bring us closer to a unified movement
towards balancing our diets and decreased consumption of unhealthy food
(40:08):
and harmful dieting practices. Maybe then we can start to
feel better about our bodies, not because of their physical
appearance per se, but because of how good we feel
on the inside. Yeah. Oh, that's what we wanted to
We wanted to read that one because it just summed
up how we felt about it, so so so beautifully. Yeah,
and I responded with like, um, this is all very
(40:29):
important to both Florena and I have strong thoughts saying
opinions on this, and I'm sure we will do an episode,
but it is It's crazy how you can convince yourself,
even if you know, even if you know, you know, yeah,
it just can't work. It can't work. But then just anything,
(40:52):
just try it, Just do it. Just maybe ye. Yes,
So thank you for writing in Mica and we will
definitely come back to that at some point. Absolutely um our.
Other note about the juicing episode came in from Chris.
The welch's history as an anti alcohol alternative really made
me laugh since as a home wine maker, I, like
(41:14):
most of my peers, recommend anyone who wants to try
out home wine making starts with frozen welch is on juice.
It has no preservatives, and it's cheap, allowing for a
gallon batch of wine for about ten dollars. It's a
great do. I really want to do this batch for newbies.
While it's never going to be mistaken for Torlatto, I
(41:36):
don't know things about wine, it's better than your average
bottle of two buck chuck. That's great. Yeah, I also
I want to I want to go try that now
I know me too. We should do it. Good stuff
test Oh oh yeah, there there you go. Test test
of the episode. We haven't had one yet, okay. Oh
and the pizza bonus for this one is really easy.
(41:58):
Oh pineapple pizza. Oh, I always loved pineapple pizza, Lauren.
But no, I'll go, I'll have to go check out.
I'll have to go. Um see if I can get
a food allergist type human too, guest, guest or inturologist
of some kind to help me figure out what's going on. Yeah,
(42:18):
because if you could be having canned juice and fruit,
I'm dubious because I feel like I've had a baked
good that was sweetened with pineapple juice that still made
me super sick. So I don't know. That feels like probably,
I don't know, probably, yeah, but maybe it was fresh juice.
I'll get tested. We'll keep our fingers crossed. Absolutely. Thank you. Um.
(42:42):
If you guys would like to write in with any
other health advice or or or anything else that you
would like to tell us or share with us, oh,
you can do that. Yes. We have an email at
food stuff at housetaff forks dot com. We also have
a Twitter at food stuff h s W and an
(43:02):
Instagram at food stuff Uh. Yeah. We share some videos
and pictures of the adventures that we've been having. Yeah,
come check it out. Definitely let us know what you think.
Um and yeah, we hope lots more good things are
coming your way.
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Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
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