A Whole Peck Of Peppers To Pick

Here’s a quick gardening quiz.

Everyone knows (you do, don’t you?) that the tomato is actually a fruit and not a vegetable—and a tropical fruit to boot. So what’s another tropical fruit that we grow in our vegetable gardens? Remember that fruits are seed-bearing structures that develop from the ovary of a flowering plant, and true vegetables are all other plant parts such as roots, leaves and stems.

If your answer is peppers (or squash), you’re correct, and this week we’ll take a look at growing sweet peppers in the old veggie patch.

Sweet peppers can be a little confusing because most of us are familiar with the classic, blocky, green bell pepper. But have you ever gone into the market to buy bell peppers and found that some are green, some are red and others can even be yellow and all in the same bin? Well, they could conceivably all come from the same plant and yet be different colors and even taste different. It all depends on maturity and when they were harvested. More on this later though.

It is easy to value sweet peppers for looks and flavor alone, but the sweet pepper is a nutritional powerhouse as well. A serving of the most popular type in this country, the sweet bell, is only 29 calories, contains more vitamin C than the average orange, a generous amount of vitamin E and many antioxidants. Peppers have high nutrient levels at any stage, but are the most beneficial when eaten fully ripe. The few colors of bell peppers in the average supermarket are only the beginning. Blocky-shaped bell peppers can ripen to many colors: ivory, pink, purple, red, yellow, orange and chocolate. Sweet peppers come in many shapes also; the elongated banana, the blocky bell, the oblong or “half-long” bells, flat “cheese” shapes and smooth cherry types.

In May you can find many varieties of sweet pepper plants available at a local nursery, but true enthusiasts usually branch out from there and spend the winter perusing seed catalogs, online shops and seed swaps for unusual colors, shapes, sizes and flavors, and now is the time to begin sowing these seeds indoors. The variety and nuance of sweet pepper flavor compare to fine wine, coffee or chocolate. Sweet peppers are also similar to other foodie obsessions in that many cultures and regions have different favorites. Cooks love the flexibility and wide spectrum of possibilities sweet peppers offer in the kitchen. Pepper plants are easy to grow, can require very little space and are an attractive addition to any garden, yard or balcony as long as you have sun.

Peppers are native to South and Central America, tracing back to the Oaxaca region of Mexico somewhere between 4000 and 6000 B.C. Ancient complete and partial peppers have been found well preserved in caves during archaeological excavations. The way the peppers were found suggests that they were consumed as both dry seasoning and fresh. Researchers conclude peppers were harvested whole, dried and then ground up for seasoning when needed. Dried peppers are light in weight and can store for thousands of years. Perhaps peppers were the first convenience food!

Over the years peppers became popular across the Americas. The name “pepper” was coined by Christopher Columbus and other Spanish explorers of the Americas who were looking for plants that would produce peppercorns to be used as a spice. Peppers were taken back to Europe and became very popular—especially in warm summer regions in Southern Europe, since they are a warm-season crop that doesn’t do well in colder northern climates—and peppers have become a key ingredient in the diet of countless cultures.

In the United States, most bell peppers sold in supermarkets are grown in Florida. Other pepper-producing states are California, Texas, New Jersey and North Carolina, but because of their long growing season it really isn’t feasible to grow peppers commercially farther north except for the local market. And yet most of the yellow, red and orange sweet peppers that we buy in the dead of winter come from Holland … where they’re grown in greenhouses. More recent trends in commercial pepper production include increased greenhouse production in order to reduce transit time and grafting for disease resistance. In the past few years we’ve enjoyed mini snacking-type peppers as they have gained popularity nationwide.

Sweet bell peppers are a cultivar of Capsicum annuum. (A cultivar is simply a horticultural term for a group of cultivated plants given a unique name for a set of desirable characteristics.) Non-pungent banana peppers, sweet jalapeños and sweet cherries are also members of Capsicum annuum. Currently, capsicum includes at least 25 species, four of which are domesticated. Most of the commonly grown bell peppers start out as different shades of green. Some peppers stay green until they mature to red or yellow; others may turn white, light purple or purple before maturing to red or yellow. Capsicum species produce fruits that synthesize and accumulate carotenoid pigments, which are responsible for the mature yellow, orange and red fruit colors.

Sweet peppers are called sweet because they do not produce capsaicin—a chemical that causes a “burning” sensation when hot peppers are consumed (or when they come into contact with the eyes or nose, etc.). Sweet peppers lack capsaicin due to a recessive form of a gene that eliminates capsaicin and, consequently, the “hot” taste usually associated with the rest of the Capsicum genus.

Sweet peppers are actually a fruit (because they come from a flowering plant and contain seeds), but treated and spoken of as a vegetable. Worldwide, each culture has its own preferred shapes, textures colors, flavors and recipes.

A few examples of the plethora of sweet pepper types grown are bells, Bull’s Horn, snacking mini-peppers, half-longs, sweet bananas, sweet jalapeños and sweet habañeros.

“Bell” is a term used in this country that refers to sweet peppers with three to four lobes. Bell might refer roughly either to the fruit shape or to the pendulous way the fruit hangs from the plant. In the U.S. agriculture industry, the three- to four-lobed fruits that are nearly as wide as they are tall are referred to as “blocky” bells, and the elongated bell peppers (which are not as common in North America) are called “half-long” bells (half as wide as they are long). Bells can be found in many colors, including red, yellow, orange, purple, chocolate and ivory.

“Bull’s Horn” peppers are sweet and wide at the shoulder, tapering to a point. They often have thicker walls than the blocky bells and commonly mature to red. They are thought to have been brought to the U.S. from Italy and are also called “Corno di Toro,” which translates to “Horn of the Bull.”

Mini-snacking peppers have been popular with home gardeners for many years and have gained popularity in U.S. grocery stores in the last 10 years or so. They are blocky, pointed, thin-walled, sweet, and come in bright colors, including yellow and orange. The best snacking peppers are crunchy and have just a few seeds or no seeds at all.

And now we enter the dangerous territory of varieties that can be either sweet or hot. Bananas are long and thin and usually mature from a light green or yellow to red. They are used fresh and pickled as rings. Because there are both sweet and hot banana peppers available, be sure and order the seed or buy the plant you prefer. Sweet jalapeños and habañeros are also available, though not as common. They are worth searching out—the flavors revealed by removing the burn is a pleasant surprise for the pepper enthusiast.

Next week, how to grow them. But between now and then, look at your seed catalogs or seed racks at the local garden centers and choose the varieties you want to grow. Keep growing.