Bananas and the Pioneer Kitchen
BlueIrene
Posts: 1,318
Does anybody know if the bananas in the fruit basket would have been commonplace in the days of the pioneer kitchen? I need to bring that basket to the forefront of a render a bit more, but I've got a feeling that I'm going to get complaints that the bananas wouldn't have figured much (if at all) in the lives of pioneers and I'm struggling to find something to replace them. Hopefully I'm wrong and they ate bananas morning, noon and night - it would mean one less thing to think about!
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Pioneers lived in where? the Mid west of America. Do Babanas gorw in that area, or did they when the pioneers were around pioneering?
Fruits of the forest would be what was available, blueberries and such
It would depend on what year your pioneers were settling, if in the US. Before 1830, bananas were available in large port cities like Boston and NY, but not available beyond that. After about 1870, the popularity of the banana exploded because it was cheaper than most other available fruits and health conscious Americans loved the idea of the peel keeping bananas relatively germ free during transport. Larger companies were importing them into the US by the late 1880s and bananas were very popular. By the 1890s, they were found in all marketplaces, even in more rural areas like the plains and the Midwest.
Google tells me that the pioneers began pioneering in 1847, but it's a bit less forthcoming about when they stopped :) Anyway, it would seem that I've asked Google at least one right question now, because I've found out that bananas were formally introduced to the American public in 1876, and just one of them cost an hour's wage. It was foil wrapped, though! I expect pioneers had more important things to spend their money on, but on the other hand, it could be why mine are so poor :)
I'm not sure who was buying foil wrapped bananas. But, considering that the banana, more specifically, the Cavandish banana which is the one exported worldwide since the 1800s, has always been the cheapest fruit around, I would question that Google source. They have always been cheaper than apples and oranges even in the 1800s.
Google has the Cavendish banana making it's way around the world (via Chatsworth in England) around 1850. The Duke of Devonshire, whose gardener had been cultivating them, had received them from Mauritius in 1834. I've come to the conclusion that the case for the bananas in the pioneer kitchen is borderline and so have decided to replace them. Not with other fruit, which were the lines I was thinking along, but with one of the jars from the shelf, resurfaced with stone shaders so the contents can't be seen (the jar is slanted in the basket, and the contents in the jar aren't). It's a shopping basket now, not a fruit basket. Thanks for the responses :)
and someone then invented banana split ice cream sundaes
and then they added the rum
I have a 1900-vintage sort of recipe book that says "bananas have become very popular recently…"
I think the key word is "pioneer", as in something that's fairly remote from civilization. In ports and major cities bannanas would have been available. However, the problem with bananas is that they have a relatively short shelf life compared to most other fruits. A basket of apples will keep for months, but bananas have a very short window between green and overripe, coupled with the fact that they're fairly fragile to ship as well once they're out of the green stage. So, for anyplace that's not directly on a major waterway or rail line, they would be a pretty exotic and expensive item. So, a pioneer house in the midwest would be unlikely to have them. On the other hand, a house in a coastal region of Texas or California might actually end up with a banana tree or two growing outside.
The crazy cost of having bananas during pioneer days would spark a lot of questions to viewers/readers. Not to mention how fast they'd go bad... so fresh bananas in a pioneer town would mean a very powerful person... or someone who had a lot of connections. If you wanted to get your viewer's interest riled up... I'd go with bananas... it's so odd and unique. I like it.
If more conventional...Pioneers conveys the West... of north america... if your setting is not of a ultra rich person... corn?
Ah, but by about 1890, we had trains and refrigerated train cars. By the 1890s, bananas were common place and were sold more than apples and oranges combined according to my research.
Reminds me of a joke:
What's that song?
It's "Yes, we have no bananas" by Johann Sebastian Bach.
Sure it's by Bach? They didn't have any bananas when he lived.
Well that's also what the song says, isn't it?
A movie was about to be made featuring the lives of Beethoven, Mozart and Bach. Bruce Willis, Kevin Costner and Arnold Schwarzenegger were discussing casting. Bruce wanted to play Mozart, and Kev wanted the part of Beethoven. 'No problem', said Arnie. 'I'll be Bach'.
We're all bananas around here...
::groan:: hahahha
Speaking of bananas... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkpUFgospsQ
Not sure about true pioneers, but the farm in upstate New York where I grew up in the 1940's had a stove and furnishings very similar to the "Pioneer Kitchen" set. And we had bannas unless this happened:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDd8shcLvHI
Again, it comes down to the primary definition of Pioneer, ie: 1.) a person who is among the first to explore or settle a new country or area. In fact, the word pioneer is derived from a french word for infantry that literally means on foot. So, if a place is built in an area that already has easy access to major shipping, transit (and groceries,) in what way can it conceveably be considered to be a "pioneer"?
No fair, setting fierce bananas onto poor little kitty cats.
At least they weren't 'the wrong bananas'
http://www.rathergood.com/bananas/
I think most Americans tend to generalize the term to include all those living in the outer reaches of the American West in the early days regardless of whether or not they were actually the ones to be the 'first' to be in an area. Most areas of expansion happened fairly quickly with the land grabs. I suppose the proper term should actually be frontiersmen and frontierswomen to speak of those who were living in these recently settled areas then. However, the only time I ever recall hearing anyone use those terms was in college history classes. I'm not sure if there is an actual cutoff, timewise, for when one is no longer called a pioneer and when one is called a settler or frontiersperson. I think it's a rather gray area when talking to most Americans when it comes to American History.
Gets extra weird considering there were civilizations there. But hey. ;)
The Mississippian civilization was pretty amazing, loosely covering half of North America: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippian_culture
.Frontiersmen were mostly hunters, trappers, and guides. And the location of the 'frontier' changed over time, of course. At first it was just west and north of the original colonies. The expansion seemed to 'stop' at Missouri where many of the trails to the real west began (Oregon Trail, Mormon Trail) and the frontier became the Rockies on West (and the SouthWest). The original pioneers used these (and the Santa Fe Trail to head to California during the Gold Rush years) to go all the way West. America, with exceptions of course, was settled in The East, then the West, then the Rest.
The Great Plains were settled last though the Homestead Act was in late 1820's or early 1830's. By 'settled' I mean developed into larger cities (like San Francisco already had for example) than just trading posts. It took the railroad to accomplish that. There was St. Louis on the Mississippi and many of the trails followed the Missouri River northwest from there. Other than that it was wagons and horseback on the plains and of course driving cattle to Chicago.
When you think about it America was 'settled' from the outside in if you look at the major rivers, the oceans, and the Great Lakes, because it is commerce that builds the world. And commerce needs easy movement of goods and before the railroad that usually required navigable water.
I spent my gradeschool years in Washington State and the pioneers were big in our education. Museums all over showed us mockups of the dwellings, the furniture, etc. Lots of Native American stuff too. Many stores had original totem poles on their property. The pioneer names I remember the most were Marcus and Narcissa Whitman and Longmire. I think they all had come over via the Oregon Trail and up from Oregon and were pioneers--early settlers. Some farming, apple orchards, lots of forestry and carpentry and fishing was really big since we were so close to Puget Sound.