James Drummond Dole

Today is the birthday of James Drummond Dole, who was born on this day in 1877.

Dole had gone to Harvard, and then after graduation at the age of 22, he made his way to Hawaii in 1899. After living there two years, he honed in on growing pineapple as a business. The Smooth Cayenne strain of pineapple wasn't native to Hawaii. It was a Florida variety. Sadly, the native variety, Kona, couldn't be grown commercially. So, Dole began growing 200 Smooth Cayenne pineapple plants on 60 acres. The rest is history.
Here are a few fun pineapple facts:
Pineapples have Bromelain; a chemical that prevents gelatin from setting. But, once pineapple is canned, the Bromelain is destroyed, which is why you can add canned pineapple to jello.
Christopher Columbus brought pineapples back to Spain from the Caribbean Island of Guadalupe in 1493.  The Spanish introduced pineapples to Hawaii.
Today, thanks to Dole, more than one-third of the world's commercial supply of pineapples comes from Hawaii.