Nowadays, you probably don’t need to look too hard to find a fresh pineapple in your local grocery store. In fact, you could probably see shelves upon shelves of these spiky fruits, and you could buy as many as you wanted for a fairly reasonable price. However, it’s safe to say that the pineapple life hasn’t always been this easy. There was once a time where pineapples would set you back $8,000 — and we’re definitely glad that time is now over.
Traveling Across the Globe
Because we’re used to having pineapples on tap, it’s easy to forget that they are actually native to South America. However, during the 15th Century, they had already made their way over to the Caribbean, and it was Christopher Columbus who spotted these fruits and decided to take them back home to Europe. They immediately became popular, with people wanting to know more about this exotic fruit. However, these pineapples had to be shipped over, and this came at a cost to the buyer — and to the fruit itself, which rarely survived the journey.
Growing Them at Home
By the time the 17th Century came around, the need for pineapples had grown even more, and farmers in the Netherlands and England decided to create their own hothouses so that they could replicate the tropical climate needed to grow these fruits. Because they could only grow a few pineapples at a time, they were reserved for high society who had the money to spend on such an item — and the same could be said in the United States. The pineapples they used to eat back in the day were originally imported from the Caribbean, and this meant that the price had to be hiked up to warrant such a trip. That’s where the $8,000 comes in to play.
Could you imagine spending $8,000 on one fruit?