COLLECTING BANANA LABELS

If you see a 70-year-old woman digging through a trash can for discarded banana peels in Florida, you may have spotted one of the world's most unique collectors.

Becky Martz, of Orlando, has spent the past 29 years fastidiously collecting and cataloging more than 21,000 banana labels from around the world.

Martz's hobby has led her to Germany, Costa Rica and Ecuador where she's met with fellow collectors and picked up random banana labels, she told CNN via email.

"What makes them special to me is that they are ephemeral. They are meant to be thrown away," Martz told CNN. "For some reason, that makes them even more precious to me. I have rescued many labels from the trash or a banana peel on the ground. I feel sad when I see someone has thrown a peel away with the label still on it, so I rescue it."

Martz first noticed how unique banana labels were in 1991. She was restocking her fruit bowl when she saw how the old Dole banana labels were from Guatemala and the new ones were from Honduras.

"I wondered how many different countries I could find on those Dole labels," Martz said. "That is when I first started paying attention to them and noticing differences. I like that they are free. I like that they are designed to capture your attention. I like that they send messages. I like that they are tiny works of art."

By Christmas of that year, Martz's curiosity grew after Chiquita had put a label on their bananas that said "The Perfect Stocking Stuffer." This was the first label she kept.

That one label quickly grew to 17, thus necessitating the need for a small photo album to store them.

A few years later, one of Martz's sons discovered that his mom was part of a small, yet vibrant, banana label-collecting community that spanned the globe. While searching around the nascent internet in the mid-1990s, Martz's son, Carl, found a handful of rudimentary websites belonging to other banana label enthusiasts from around the world.

Martz has since attended banana label collector meetings around the world, including one of the largest gatherings in Costa Rica in 2008.

Banana label collectors meeting in Costa Rica

It is unclear, exactly, how many collectors there are around the world. Martz estimates that there might be 25 in the US, roughly 50 in Asia and 200 in Central and South America.

"Many of the collectors work in the banana business but when I was in Costa Rica it seemed like every other person from the hotel maids to store owners had a collection. Most of them had no interest in trading, just in collecting from bananas themselves," she said.

"I have made many good friends through our shared love of banana labels. In fact, my husband says that I now collect banana friends," Martz said. "My best 'banana friend' is a guy in Slovenia. He has visited us a number of times. A few years ago, we went to his wedding in Ljubljana. They named one of their children after me."

Despite the lack of meetups, Martz's passion for collecting hasn't diminished. She still searches for a prized two-label set.

"In 1980, Chiquita printed some labels with the mascot of the summer Olympics called Misha," Martz said. "The US boycotted the summer Olympics due to the Soviet-Afghan War, so the labels were never used. A few escaped destruction. I don't have it, yet, but I am ever hopeful."

To read the complete article, see:
How one Florida woman amassed a collection of more than 21,000 banana labels (https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/22/us/banana-label-collector-becky-martz-trnd/index.html)

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