Strange, but true: how pineapples became a permanent fixture in SA's fruit bowls

If the pineapple were not a pineapple, it would be a character in 'The Simpsons'. With its spiky crown and yellow complexion, it could easily be a regular propping up the counter at Mo's Bar.

Jaunty in appearance and delicious on the palate, the pineapple is also the international icon of hospitality - like a welcome mat you can eat. Its spread from Brazil and Paraguay to the Caribbean islands and the rest of the world is a tale of adventure.

Pineapples were almost impossible to get to Europe via wooden sailing ship because they would perish in the hold long before they arrived. Only the swiftest, with wind and luck on their side, could get them to ports in colonial America, where this fruit became the ultimate delicacy.

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If you were invited to a dinner party where the table featured a pineapple (usually placed on a pedestal for prominence), you knew you were honoured indeed. In days of yore, sea captains freshly home from the tropics would sometimes skewer a pineapple on one of their fence posts to show they were back home and eager to receive visitors.

As a result, the pineapple became a symbol of hospitality and friendship.

South Africa's history with this sweet crop begins with an unsubstantiated rumour that Jan van Riebeeck brought them to the Cape, but pineapples were planted commercially only in the 1850s, in what was then Natal.

Lee Botha of the Pineapple Growers Association says that in 1865 a farmer from Bathurst, Charles Purdon, travelled to Grahamstown by ox wagon. There he went into a barbershop owned by Lindsay Green. While having his hair cut, Purdon saw a row of pineapple tops set in jars of water, a gift from a Durban acquaintance of the barber.

Purdon took a few spiky crowns and planted them back on his Bathurst farm. His was the haircut that launched a million pineapples. The climate between Peddie and Bathurst is freakishly sub-tropical thanks to the warm Indian Ocean current that comes close inshore nearby.

Bathurst, headquarters of the Pineapple Growers Association, is now famous for being the centre of the southernmost pineapple-growing region in the world. It is also home to the Big Pineapple, a three-storey fibreglass structure with shop, information kiosk and a lookout deck that pips any other monster pineapple model in the world by a good few centimetres.

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7 ODD FACTS ABOUT PINEAPPLES

1) Each pineapple segment or scale is actually a floweret, so each fruit is a fusion of dozens of flowers.

2)The spiky tops grow into large plants that bear first one fruit (plant crop), then the mother plant grows suckers from which the second crop (ratoon crop) is harvested. It takes two years to harvest the first pineapple after planting.

3) Colour is unimportant when choosing a ripe pineapple - if it smells fresh, tropical and sweet, it will be good.

4) Pineapples contain bromelin, an enzyme with anti-inflammatory properties that kills bacteria, fights infections and even discourages plaque in the mouth.

5) Pineapples help to eliminate excessive mucus and are thus used to treat sinusitis.

6) Pineapples ease arthritis and indigestion and help expel intestinal worms.

7) The fruit is very high in manganese, which helps strengthen brittle bones.