Pineapples
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" . . . It is, to my eyes, the most beautiful fruit of any of the fruits I have seen, and the one which has the best fragrance and flavor, as well as in its size and color, which is green lightened or toned with a very deep yellow, and the more it ripens the more it takes on of the deep yellow and loses the green, at the same time increasing in the fragrance of more than perfect peaches," wrote Gonzalo Fernandez in 1513.
Pineapples, of the family Bromeliaceae and the genus Ananas or Pseudananas, originated in southern Brazil and Paraguay. The Bromeliaceae family has over 2,000 species, with pineapple leading as the most eaten member. The fruit was spread through South and Central America into the West Indies by the Indians. When Christopher Columbus arrived in 1493, he discovered the fruit on the island of Guadaloupe. He brought it back with him to Spain, and it is said that because sailing ships carried the fruit to protect against scurvy, it was spread around the world. The Spanish introduced it to Hawaii and Guam in approximately the early 16th Century...