[Sca-cooks] pineapples

[Elaine Koogler]

hlaislinn at earthlink.net wrote:
> Bear wrote:
> No, it says "one of the earliest references in 1674," leaving the door
> open 
> for earlier references.  Since the first English pineapple was grown in 1661 
> by John Rose, there are obviously earlier references.  From the blurb, the 
> article is about the growth of the English pineapple market, not about the 
> absolute history of the pineapple in Europe, so the references will be to 
> pineapples in England rather than pineapples in Europe.
>
> The English were crazy about pineapples, if their adoption into heraldry is any indication. When i lived in southern Maryland, it seems the pineapples were everywhere, used as decoration by the decendants of the first English inhabitants who came over in 1634 (Is that right Kiri? It's been a few years...). It always bemused me that the pineapple was so popular, being a New World fruit and all. It may have been adopted after they came to America, but that doesn't make sense to me since pineapples aren't indigenous to North America! Pineapples aren't in the PicDic, and are only minimally mentioned in Fox-Davies, without dates of course.
>
> ~Aislinn~
>
>   
I first ran into them as decorative items in Colonial times when I was 
in school in Williamsburg, VA...and they really were quite popular.  
They signified hospitality, as I understand it.  So if they'd been 
around long enough to take on a special significance, they probably were 
know around the turn of the16th - 17th centuries. 

Kiri


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