 In the mid-1880s, a sizable banana market was beginning to appear in the U.S. thanks to a company called Boston Fruit. Before them... The banana was known in the United States, but it was considered a rare, weird, I don't even want to call it delicacy because it wasn't. You know, if you look at some books from the 1800s, for example, one of the things that's interesting about the banana is it was taboo because of its shape.