Bananas may have existed from eternity but to the so called civilised world, it was unknown, till on 10th of April, 1633, exactly 389 years to the day, a fruit bearing unusual size and shape was introduced to the people of England.The word ‘Banana’ may have many connotations-ranging from ‘going banana’ to ‘saying bananas’, to ‘Banana Republic’. The list is rather long. Few words have as many phrases and idioms associated with it than this delicious spathe. It matters little that many of these connotations may be derogatory, some scandalous and some outright insulting.
But as a source of nutrition and a fruit, its claim is unique and unrivalled. It is one of those fruits that even poor can afford and today remains as ubiquitous as may be the universal potato.
However, history on record suggests that prior to 17th century, banana was an unknown commodity in Europe. When a botanist and an enterprising merchant Thomas Johnson first presented this fruit to the citizens of London in 1633, he was tentative and sceptical about its acceptance. It turned out that he was to be celebrated as the first man to sell bananas in England.
Thomas Johnson is known as “the father of British field botany”. Born in 1600, Johnson established his scientific credentials with his meticulously and laboriously produced tome- “Herball”. The massive book, liberally illustrated and annotated ran into 2,000 pages and had 2,900 illustrations. It listed plants, where they grew and their medicinal properties. It remained the accepted and trusted text in its field for over 200 years
Johnson, apart from being a scientist was also an experimenter and an entrepreneur to the core. Records show that in 1626 he established an apothecary business in central London. On 10th April 1633, he put on sale in his shop, a new, strange and exotic fruit, not seen in this part of the world earlier. It is believed that his first consignment came from Bermuda.
The fruit, in a lyrical prose, was described by Johnson thus,
“Each of the fruits was not ripe, being green, each of them the bignesse of a large beane, some five inches long and an inch and a half in breadth. The stalk is short and like one’s little finger.
“They hang with their heads down, but if you turn them up, they look like a boat. The husk is easily removed. The pulp is white, soft and tender and ate somewhat like a musk melon.”
Johnson did not live long enough to see or could not have then imagined the endless concoctions and preparations made from banana, yet his unusual entrepreneurial initiative gave the world, one of the most prolific and productive food item ever known. Arguably the best among them, being the classical banana split, where the fruit is cut length ways and served with scoops of vanilla, chocolate and strawberry ice cream nestling between the two halves.
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