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Peppers are mysterious because they add so much to our lives and most people do not realize it. We have pepper, the kind that people associate with salt, we have green and red bell peppers, with an occasional yellow one, we find in the supper market and that is basically it, in most people’s minds.
Peppers are native to the Americas and they have been with us a long, long time coming in thousands of varieties with many unusual flavors and all kinds of shapes and sizes.
Whether you like hot or sweet, grow some. If you are starting from seed then get that seed sown at least 8 to 10 weeks before your last frost because you need the plants going into the ground by then. You can start them right on your window ledge and be surprised how quickly the seeds sprout. Peppers need fertile soil and lots of sun and water. They can be used green or red, but need to ripen on the vine.
However, let’s think about peppers for a moment. What is the vegetable we call a pepper? The green, red or yellow part referred to as the fruit is really an edible herb. The ground seed is used for a spice and we have white pepper and black pepper with the white pepper being a milder spice than the black.
One can eat a cup of diced green peppers and only add 40 calories to their daily calorie intake so it is a good diet food and a good bulk food because it will add 3 grams of fiber, only 10 grams of carbohydrates and 1 gram of protein. A sweet pepper contains a lot of vitamin C and if you eat only 1 ounce of a raw green pepper you will be getting 40 mg of Vitamin C! But once you cook them they will lose that. Pepper also contain Vitamin E and A.
I have members of my family taking cayenne pepper as a preventive measure against heart attacks by making sure they get some every day in their diets. I know herbalists who keep Cayenne pepper in their first aid kits for use against emergencies such as internal bleeding which may result from any kind of accident.
Science has proven that chili peppers help clear out the lungs, act as a pain killer for rheumatoid arthritis sufferers, causes the brain to release endorphins giving you a sense of well being and greatly improves the circulation.
Meanwhile back in the garden, there is nothing like watching those lovely peppers grow and grow and grow getting fatter each day. What a taste treat when they are ready to pick. I love them just about any way I can get them. In salads, raw in relish trays with a good dip, stir fries, stuffed and besides in Brooklyn I was raised up on good hot sausage sandwiches with fried onions and peppers.
I always plant the red and green pepper plants that I buy from my favorite Amish nursery. However in 2004 I really went pepper crazy.
I planted some heirloom seeds called Sweet Chocolate and this rich, chocolate-brown pepper has a wonderful flavor. This is a medium sized, bell shape fruit that ripens very early.
Then there was the Golden Marconi which is a late Italian pepper with beautiful large yellow 7” tapering fruit that is great for frying because it is sweet and wonderful for eating raw because it has a grand mild flavor.
Another wonderful yellow pepper was the Italian Golden Treasure which ripens within 80 days and was excellent for roasting, frying or eating fresh when we harvested these large tapered 9” fruit.
Purple Beauty which we could harvest in only 75 days was a favorite of ours and they were so colorful. They plants produced loads of these compact fruit. We enjoyed the mild flavor and the crispness of these peppers.
Topepo Rosso plants produced blood-red, round, pimento type peppers that were so sweet with thick red flesh and a crisp sound when you bite into one of them. This was a good producer and we were able to freeze our extra ones by just washing them, cleaning out the seeds and dicing them up. I then put them on a cookie sheet, froze them for about an hour, and then just poured them into a plastic bag for cooking and frying up in the winter. Matter of fact that is how I freeze all my extra peppers.
The Quadrato D’Asti Rosso was another thick red Italian pepper we enjoyed about 80 days after we planted some. Very large bells that were excellent for frying, stuffing and salads.
Finally there was the Quadrato D’Asti Giallo which produced huge yellow fruit with greenish tints on the bottoms. These peppers had nice thick walls with a sweet rich flavor and a heavy yield on the plants.
When you go to plant your peppers in your garden, open up the mystery of peppers and go a little pepper crazy. You will be glad you did.
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Author Bio Box: Arlene Wright Correll
 For more gardening or cooking information click http://www.learn-america.com/
To see Arlene’s Gardens and to read her gardening diaries or click on Arlene’s Books where you can download or buy her gardening & cook books. Remember to check out her artwork, especially of her fruits and vegetables. Arlene says, “All my royalties from the sale of my books go to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and I thank you for visiting my site.”
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