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> ***********
>
> http://www4.webpoint.com/spokane_food/ckhistry.htm
> 1493
> The fragrant fruit Columbus "discovered" pineapple on the West Indies
> island of Guadeloupe. The people there called pineapple nana, meaning
> fragrance. This lovely fruit wasn't introduced to Hawaii until centuries
> later. The first recorded planting there was January 21, 1813. That
> event launched an entire industry. Today our 50th state supplies most of
> the pineapples in the world.
>
> ***********
>
> According to Waverly Root in his encyclopedic
> book entitled _Food_, pineapple was discovered
> on the West Indian island of Guadeloupe in 1493
> by companions of Christopher Columbus.
>
> Root goes on to say (in part):
>
> "When Europeans discovered the pineapple, it was a
> case of love at first sight.
>
> "It was first accurately described in 1535 by Gonzalo
> de Oviedo y Valdes, who reported that it had
> delicious taste which combined the flavors of melons,
> strawberries, raspberries and pippins*....
>
> "In 1595 Sir Walter Raleigh wrote on pinas, the princesse
> of fruits, that grow under the Sun, especially those of
> Guiana.
>
> "The only sour note in this paean of praise came from
> Charles V, who, as King of Spain as well as Holy Roman
> Emperor, had an early opportunity to taste the pineapple
> and refused for fear that it might poison him.
>
> "As a rule any new food is slow to enter foreign diets;
> often two or three centuries pass before those unfamiliar
> with it dare eat it. The success of the pineapple was
> immediate; in a little more than half a century after its
> first discover by Europeans, it was being grown--and
> eaten--in tropical areas throughout the world.
>
> "Its transfer to other countries may at first have been
> accidental. Ships leaving America took pineapples aboard
> to provide fresh food for their crews during the voyage
> ... and the crowns, cut off when the fruit was to be eaten,
> were planted wherever the ship touched land to see if
> they would grow there. We have written records of its
> cultivation in India, apparently already well established,
> in 1583. "
>
> ISBN 0-671-22589-8
>
> Rory
> --
> Rory McGowen, CLM
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