Speaker 1: Welcomed Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of iHeart
Speaker 1: Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is full of
Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
Speaker 1: of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Speaker 1: Walk through any grocery store and you'll find countless items
Speaker 1: with interesting backstories. Corn Flakes, for example, were invented by
Speaker 1: John Harvey Kellogg and his brother as a way to
Speaker 1: curb one's passions. They were bland and flavorless, exactly what
Speaker 1: lustful patients at his sanatorium needed to keep their hands
Speaker 1: off each other and themselves. And thanks to botanist William
Speaker 1: Hughes's work in South America during the seventeenth century, people
Speaker 1: all over America and Europe now enjoy piping hot cups
Speaker 1: of cocoa every winter. But before one particular item showed
Speaker 1: up in grocery stores and farmers markets, it stood as
Speaker 1: a symbol for wealth and aristocracy. It was discussed as
Speaker 1: though it would have been handcrafted by the House of
Speaker 1: Faberge itself. For those privileged enough to afford it, This
Speaker 1: item originally hailed from South America, where the two Pamba
Speaker 1: people grew and ate it. According to an English translation
Speaker 1: of Andre Tovey's fifteen sixty eight original French account The
Speaker 1: New Found World, it was called hairiri. But these things
Speaker 1: were notoriously difficult to transport, making the rare few that
Speaker 1: found their way to Europe prohibitively expensive. Christopher Columbus had
Speaker 1: encountered them back in the late fourteen hundreds and had
Speaker 1: even tried to grow his own once he returned to Spain,
Speaker 1: but failed. These fruits could only be grown in a
Speaker 1: tropical climate. It wasn't until the mid sixteen hundreds when
Speaker 1: John Evelyn, and English gardener, discovered the key to growing
Speaker 1: hiri res in local hot houses. His efforts proved uh fruitful,
Speaker 1: but were expanded upon by a later gardener around seventy. However,
Speaker 1: despite England's success at growing them, by the eighteenth century,
Speaker 1: hohiri rees hadn't shed their exorbitant price tags due to
Speaker 1: the level of carot took to cultivate them. Royal monarchs
Speaker 1: and the upper class hired gardeners to grow the elusive fruits.
Speaker 1: They also spent unfathomable amounts of money for the privilege
Speaker 1: of eating what few could get their hands on. Rich
Speaker 1: Americans living in the colonies at the time also treated
Speaker 1: the hiriri as a status symbol. They brought theirs in
Speaker 1: from the Caribbean rather than Europe, and paid the equivalent
Speaker 1: of about eight thousand dollars today just to display them
Speaker 1: in their homes. And that's right. Due to their high
Speaker 1: price tags and difficulty in importing them, colonists didn't eat
Speaker 1: them right away. They were centerpieces, something for guests to
Speaker 1: admire during parties and formal gatherings. It wasn't until they
Speaker 1: started rotting when the fruits would be carved up and eaten.
Speaker 1: For those who couldn't afford to buy one out right,
Speaker 1: a booming rental business popped up, allowing the less affluent
Speaker 1: a lease one for the night to show off to
Speaker 1: friends at family The following day, the item would be
Speaker 1: returned to the merchant for someone else to rent next.
Speaker 1: It didn't matter that they didn't own it, because for
Speaker 1: one evening, the average person could feel like royalty and
Speaker 1: make their peers jealous at the same time. Now, just
Speaker 1: looking at the hiriri, one wouldn't think that they were
Speaker 1: all that glamorous. Their exteriors are brown, hard and spiky.
Speaker 1: A tall collection of green waxy leaves springs from the top,
Speaker 1: like in eruption. Frozen in time, they were unbecoming, but
Speaker 1: their rarity made them coveted among society's elite. For over
Speaker 1: two hundred years. The hiriri was also featured in patterns
Speaker 1: that appeared on fabrics, wallpapers, and furniture. Those who couldn't
Speaker 1: have the real thing settled for copies carved or printed
Speaker 1: onto other surfaces. And then, in nineteen hundred, one man
Speaker 1: figured out a way to bring that beloved fruit to
Speaker 1: the masses. His name was James Dole, an American industrialist
Speaker 1: who had moved out to Honolulu, Hawaii, one year earlier
Speaker 1: to start his business. With just sixteen thousand dollars to
Speaker 1: his name, James bought himself a sixty four acre farmland
Speaker 1: on the island of Oahu, where he started growing hiri rees.
Speaker 1: Within seven years, he was canning and packing them for
Speaker 1: distribution throughout the United States. He grew his modest operation
Speaker 1: into a massive plantation, sadly by exploiting foreign labor by
Speaker 1: paying them the lowest wages possible, and those ruthless business practices,
Speaker 1: eliminated nearly all of his competitors and turned his dull
Speaker 1: food company into one of the most successful corporations in
Speaker 1: the world. But nobody today knows what a hiri re is,
Speaker 1: despite its importance throughout history. That's because Andre Tovey didn't
Speaker 1: have another name for it at the time that he
Speaker 1: wrote his account, But based on the clues he left,
Speaker 1: historians believe he actually had encountered a fruit found in
Speaker 1: many foods we enjoy today, including sangria, upside down cakes,
Speaker 1: and you better believe it. Occasionally on pizza, the fruit
Speaker 1: was the pineapple. There are some coincidences that seem too
Speaker 1: wild to be ignored, the kinds of coincidences where you
Speaker 1: have to wonder if there are other forces at play, like,
Speaker 1: for instance, how Stephen Hawking just happens to share his
Speaker 1: birth and death date with Galileo and Albert Einstein, or
Speaker 1: how Violet Jessup survived not one or even two, but
Speaker 1: three major ocean liner sinkings. Then there are other coincidences
Speaker 1: of absolutely no consequence whatsoever, having nothing to do with
Speaker 1: life or death, but are all still remarkably unexplainable. That's
Speaker 1: the kind of coincidence that nineteenth century poets Emile de
Speaker 1: Champ found himself in a star poet of his time.
Speaker 1: The Shamp found his inspiration in Victor Hugo, and his
Speaker 1: writing would earn the praise of Napoleon himself. Yet words
Speaker 1: would not be able to describe what was set in
Speaker 1: motion the day the Champ was first introduced to plum pudding. Now,
Speaker 1: when the Shamp was still a teenager, he happened upon
Speaker 1: an English immigrant with the curious name of Messieur Defourgebou.
Speaker 1: There is very little known about this person, but the
Speaker 1: one thing he is known for is being the man
Speaker 1: who took it upon himself to show Emil de Shamp
Speaker 1: the wonder of the very English dessert called plum pudding.
Speaker 1: It turns out to Shamp liked it. He didn't love
Speaker 1: it per se, but he did enjoy it, And after
Speaker 1: that he bid for Jabu Adeu, and the two go
Speaker 1: on their separate ways, not even a notable stop on
Speaker 1: the timeline in either of their lives. But fast forward
Speaker 1: ten years now, in the throes of his poetry accolades,
Speaker 1: the Shamp was walking through Paris, taking in the sights.
Speaker 1: He was looking for a snack something to satiate his cravings.
Speaker 1: When he passed a French restaurant and check the menu,
Speaker 1: and there it was plum pudding. The Shamp proceeded to
Speaker 1: go into the restaurant and order the pudding, only to
Speaker 1: be told that's unfortunately, sir, the last had just been sold.
Speaker 1: But the waiter called out into the restaurant, Mossieur defourgebou,
Speaker 1: would you be willing to share your plum pudding with
Speaker 1: this gentleman? And sure enough, there in the back of
Speaker 1: the restaurant was the man who had introduced De Shamp
Speaker 1: to the plum pudding in the first place, and they
Speaker 1: met again over plum pudding, in a situation that must
Speaker 1: have given them both a good laugh. Fast forward several
Speaker 1: more years and de Shamp found himself at a dinner
Speaker 1: party socializing with his circle of close friends. At some point, though,
Speaker 1: the host stepped into the room and announced that dessert
Speaker 1: was about to be served. And if you have any
Speaker 1: doubts as to what that dessert would be, you're clearly
Speaker 1: not listening. In a most improbable happenstance, that dessert is
Speaker 1: the very English plum pudding. Now I know what you're wondering,
Speaker 1: but where was Massieur Defourgebou, and was de Shamps thinking
Speaker 1: about him? Which is when the doorbell rang and the
Speaker 1: host announced the arrival of a new guest, none other
Speaker 1: than Messieur Defourgebou. The Shamps, as you might imagine, was
Speaker 1: blown away. Sure, the years had taken their toll on
Speaker 1: both of these men, but the Champs recognized the paragon
Speaker 1: of plum pudding standing right there in the flesh. Only
Speaker 1: Defourgebou did not stay long. It only took a moment
Speaker 1: before he realized that he had arrived at the wrong apartment.
Speaker 1: He had been invited to a dinner party, for sure,
Speaker 1: but it wasn't that one, and so he turned to leave,
Speaker 1: unaware that the desserts about to be served was the
Speaker 1: very dessert he's so strongly advocated for all those years ago.
Speaker 1: It would be, however, the last time the two men
Speaker 1: would see each other alive. An amazing string of coincidences
Speaker 1: and a fantastic set of stories. There's no way to
Speaker 1: explain them, but at least we get to enjoy them now,
Speaker 1: and I think we can at least agree on exactly
Speaker 1: how to classify such random coincidental meetings. Utterly curious. I
Speaker 1: hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Speaker 1: Subscribe for free on Apple pod Guests, or learn more
Speaker 1: about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The
Speaker 1: show was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with
Speaker 1: how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore,
Speaker 1: which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and
Speaker 1: you can learn all about it over at the World
Speaker 1: of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious. Yeah,