Okay, last week was the International Banana Festival held every year in Kentucky.
Yes, that Kentucky, home of blue grass, horses, bourbon, and a large cave.
Bananas come from the tropics, so, why Kentucky???
Well, 'round-about 1880, the Illinois Central Gulf Railroad was the first to develop refrigerated rail road boxcars. All of a sudden, people who didn't live in the tropics could enjoy the same fruits and vegetables as their friends down south. Fulton, Kentucky, at the time, was home to a very large railroad facility which became the redistribution point for the railroad because of its central location between New Orleans and Canada.
The United Fruit Co, now Chiquita, began shipping bananas from South America by boat to New Orleans. The bananas were then loaded onto railcars on top of blocks of ice for the trip north. Since Fulton, Kentucky had the only ice house on the route north to Chicago, the bananas were re-iced with new blocks from the Fulton Ice Plant. At one point, over 70% of the bananas that were consumed in the Unites States passed through Fulton, Kentucky.
Fulton became known as “The Banana Capital of the World.”
The United Fruit Co, now Chiquita, began shipping bananas from South America by boat to New Orleans. The bananas were then loaded onto railcars on top of blocks of ice for the trip north. Since Fulton, Kentucky had the only ice house on the route north to Chicago, the bananas were re-iced with new blocks from the Fulton Ice Plant. At one point, over 70% of the bananas that were consumed in the Unites States passed through Fulton, Kentucky.
Fulton became known as “The Banana Capital of the World.”
I guess we'll have to wait until next year to sample the
One-Ton Banana Pudding.....
One-Ton Banana Pudding.....
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