Miniature wooden pineapple bowl with salt and pepper set that fits inside from Hawaii.
History of the Pineapple in Hawaii
Pineapples come originally from South America, most probably from the region between South Brazil and Paraguay. From here, pineapples quickly spread around the continent up to Mexico and the West Indies, where Columbus found them when visiting Guadeloupe in 1493 [1]. Columbus then brought the pineapple back to Europe, from which it later made its trip to Hawaii.
Pineapples proved to be an exceptionally good fruit to bring on long sailing voyages because they help to prevent, just like oranges, the often lethal disease scurvy [2]. As a side note: the mix of pineapple and sand also is a great cleaning agent for the large wooden ships used to cross the oceans.
When exactly the first pineapples arrived in Hawaii is not certain. It is probable that they arrived together with the earliest European visitors to the Hawaiian Islands. The first documented claim of these early visits was by the Spaniards in the 16th century (source [3] or [4]). For the astute reader, that is more than 2 centuries before the arrival of captain James Cook! Since pineapples were such a popular fruit to take on long transatlantic voyages, any ship arriving in Hawaii may have brought some of these fruits along with them.
After their first arrival it took them a while to become the great success they are now. Two technologies were essential for the pineapples success in Hawaii. The first one is the development of ocean steamers which made the transport of perishable fruits viable. The second one was the development of canning. Canning made it easy to harvest the pineapples ripe and to preserve their (great!) taste for customers all over the world. The first steps into the commercialization of pineapples were taken in the 1880s, but things really picked up after James Drummond Dole (do you recognize that name?) entered the pineapple world in 1903.
By the early 1960s, Hawai’ì supplied over 80% of the world´s output of canned pineapple. This golden period did not last long though. Growing pineapples became cheaper in other countries and just 20 years later, in 1983, the last big Hawaiian cannery folded. Today, 75% of the world’s pineapples come from Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines.
Materials: wood.
