Amazingly enough, many of the summer vegetables we view as quintessentially Israeli or Middle Eastern were completely unknown in Europe before the uncharted territories of Africa and America were “discovered” in the 15th century. Take tomatoes, zucchini, pumpkins, corn, potatoes, peppers and sweet potatoes, for example – not one of these tasty veggies appeared in the European or the Eretz Yisraeli vegetable garden before the discovery of America. Okra, garlic and watermelon, on the other hand, were born in Africa and migrated here long, long ago. The thought of life bereft of the redness of tomatoes, the green of corn husks, the orange of pumpkins and sweet potatoes or the juiciness of ruby-red watermelon reminds me of black and white TV. Once again, the vegetable patch urges us for the need for humility (always a good idea), to feast our eyes upon the rich diversity of a colorful, bountiful summer season, to understand a few things about the beauty and wonder of variety, and how much we can gain and enjoy when we allow diversity to flourish.
(Check out this Masa Acher article(Hebrew) about the global culinary migration revolution.)
One of these migrants from the American continent is the pepper, the star of this week’s Newsletter. In Chubeza’s early years, the pepper only made its appearance in the summer boxes till we sadly parted from him at autumn’s end. But over the past two years, we’ve learned to grow peppers in the greenhouse even in winter (the long, sweet variety), enabling us to enjoy it all year round.
The pepper we eat as a vegetable — sweet, spicy, red, green, yellow, or orange (also available in purple, black, and brown) — was named by mistake. The word “pepper” originally referred to the spice (black or white pepper) and only later was lent to the chili and green peppers.
Black pepper (a member of the Piperaceae family), is a hearty climbing plant whose black, green or pink seeds—at various stages of ripening—are ground into the savory black or white pepper condiment we know and love). It originated in India, with its name derived from the Sanskrit pipali. Europe was already well-acquainted with pepper from ancient times, as well as its close relative, the long pepper (piper longum), which was also used as a very piquant, red-hot spice. Via commerce, the name morphed into Latin piper and other European languages. Meanwhile, the word was translated from Sanskrit to Persian to Aramaic, becoming known to ancient Jewish sages as pilpelin or pilpelet. Pepper’s sharpness became synonymous with sharp wit and tongue, as mentioned in Talmudic or other forms of debate, as well as to describe energetic, vigorous action.
Pepper spice plant
When Christopher Columbus attempted to discover a shortcut to the Indian spice route, he was unruffled by the fact that he found something totally different. He bestowed the spicy vegetable he met in the Caribbean (from the Solanaceae family) the identical name as the fiery Indian pepper he had met, thus confusing the world forever after. There is absolutely no botanical connection between the plants. Yet the American pepper was as hot as the Indian one, and Columbus, a shrewd marketing man, hoped to sell it for a pretty penny in Europe. In his diary, Columbus wrote of its being “a spice better that our black pepper.” (“Our” black pepper?!!) His enthusiasm led the spicy vegetable to travel via Spanish and Portuguese maritime routes to Europe, Africa, Southeast Asia, India, and of course, to Hungary, where dried ground dried pepper, aka paprika, became the national spice.
Soon enough, it was discovered that this hot pepper had a sweet little brother, (actually quite a few sweet siblings), but by then their fiery, peppery name was already a household word. In Italian, they were coined “sweet peppers,” and then in Hebrew gamba.
In Central America, this veggie has a long, ancient history. Petrified peppers have been found in archeological sites in Central America dating back over 2000 years, and they appear in Peruvian embroidery relics from the first century. The Olmecs, Toltecs and Aztecs were among the native American cultures known to raise peppers and use them in culinary endeavors. Together with the hot pepper varieties, the sweet varieties were brought to Europe. By the early 17th century, the Europeans discovered the rich variety of the peppers we know and love today, all which had been cultivated for years by habitants of Central America.
Today there are hundreds of pepper varieties worldwide, spanning the taste bud gamut from sweet, bittersweet, hot, to sweet-and-spicy, etc. There are also a host of shapes: elongated and wide; square (bell-shaped, hence the name “bell pepper”), small and heart-shaped (like the Spanish pimiento); long and yellow like a banana, tiny ones for pickling; long and thin, small and triangular, and even string-thin. The colors also vary: peppers usually originate in various shades of green, but not always. (There’s even a pepper variety that’s purple on the outside and green on the inside!) As the pepper ripens, similar to a tomato, its sugar level (or spiciness) spikes, and it turns to a warmer hue: yellow, orange, and of course, red, with black and maroon also available. Sweet and hot peppers are harvested at different stages of their growth – from green to red, granting us a broad range of flavors and colors to love and enjoy.
At Chubeza, our peppers are grown in the pampered environment of a growth tunnel—with protective mesh walls, shade netting overhead, and support strings to help the plants stand tall and climb high. Like beloved, well-tended offspring, they yield wonderful, heartwarming fruits that make all the effort worthwhile. Still, we maintain some open-field cultivation as well. Plantings at the end of spring and early summer sometimes struggle inside the growth tunnel, so we escort them to be planted in the more ventilated open field. Even there, we pamper them: we grow the pepper beds between two beds of Thai cowpea, which boldly climb up trellises on either side. Between the two tall beds, we stretch a shade net to protect the delicate peppers from sunburn.
We try to ease the plant’s burden during the early growth stages and allow it to focus on growing (to help it grow taller and produce peppers for a longer period). We thin out the plant at the flowering stage (similar to thinning done with fruit trees), allowing those fruits that remain on the plant to grow in a sparser, more spacious environment. Sometimes, we start by harvesting young peppers, in the first green pepper harvest. Pepper picking is essentially both harvesting and thinning. While picking green peppers, we take several fruits from the denser parts of each plant to give the remaining fruits more breathing room and space to grow. Upon ripening, the green peppers begin turning red, first one cheek, then the other, until slowly becoming completely blanketed beneath a blushing red cover.
Here at Chubeza, we grow square-jawed peppers with juicy sides, as well as long peppers known as shushka (our variety is called Ramiro). In recent years, we’ve also started growing the Lapid hot chili pepper. Chubeza’s variety is not super-hot and is not so small sized. Order them today through our order system under the category “Chubeza Vegetables and Fruits.” Here’s a glimpse of the guy:
Peppers of all varieties are very rich in Vitamin C, making them natural anti-aging agents and beneficial in preventing heart and vascular diseases and certain cancers. Vitamin C is essential for proper immune system function, and augments iron absorption through the intestines. Another key pepper component is Vitamin A, an antioxidant which protects body tissues and cells from oxidation. Vitamin A may also aid in the prevention of cancer and heart disease and promote anti-aging. Vitamin A is essential for night vision and vital for the proper function of the immune system, cells, mucous membranes, and skin.
To cook or not to cook peppers, that is the question. During cooking, much like what happens with tomatoes, the pepper’s Vitamin C levels decrease. But, simultaneously, the red pepper’s levels of the crucial antioxidant lycopene double in cooking. So, the answer is: both!
May we all have a peaceful week,
Alon, Bat-Ami, Dror, Einat, and the entire Chubeza team
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WHAT’S IN THIS WEEK’S BOXES?
Monday: Basil/chard, slice of pumpkin/butternut squash, lettuce, long Thai lubia/short Iraqi lubia, coriander/parsley/nana/chives/dill, sweet peppers/hot peppers, golden/red potatoes, eggplant/white or purple sweet potaoes, tomatoes/cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, orange sweet potatoes.
Large box, in addition: Leeks/onions, New Zealand spinach/Malabar Indian spinach/purslane/kale, carrots.
FRUIT BOXES: Pears, red or yellow apples, pomegranites, mango. Large box: Larger quantities of all the above, plus avocados, bananas.
Wednesday: Basil/chard, slice of pumpkin/butternut squash, lettuce, long Thai lubia, coriander/parsley/nana/chives/dill, sweet peppers/hot peppers, golden/red potatoes, eggplant/white or purple sweet potaoes, tomatoes/cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, orange sweet potatoes.
Large box, in addition: Leeks/onions, New Zealand spinach/Malabar Indian spinach/purslane/kale, carrots.
FRUIT BOXES: Pears, red or yellow apples, pomegranites, mango. Large box: Larger quantities of all the above, plus avocados, bananas.