Growing Red Hot Peppers In The North

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Europeans first got acquainted with red capsicum in 1494. The ship doctor Hanka, who accompanied Columbus, noticed that the inhabitants of the new part of the world season their food with a spice they call "agi". This was the red chilli pepper. The inhabitants of South America used it as a seasoning as early as the XIV century, and began to cultivate it from the XV century.

Returning home, Hanka presented the Spanish Queen Isabella with the seeds of this exotic plant. And after about four decades, the Spaniards had a chance to get acquainted with the by no means culinary property of this plant. In 1532, in the Orinoco river valley, putting up strong resistance to the Spanish conquerors, the Indians carried out the first ever … gas attack. They carried braziers and continually threw a red powder on the embers. The wind carried acrid white smoke on the soldiers, causing an excruciating cough. It turned out that the Indians used "suffocating gas" from … crushed red pepper.

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The Spaniards quickly appreciated this amazing plant and in the middle of the 16th century began to cultivate it in their homeland and use it as a spice. From here it got to Italy, and then to other European countries. It is not for nothing that red chilli peppers are still called "Spanish". The Hungarians especially liked the red hot pepper - in fact, it became their national spice. Hungarians half-jokingly, half-seriously say: "Whoever remembers Hungary remembers paprika as well." This name of red ground pepper entered the languages of many peoples.

In Russia, red hot pepper became known since the 16th century, as mentioned in the handwritten Travnik of that time, but it was appreciated much later.

Diversity in the world of hot peppers

The external variety of hot peppers is incredibly large, and they differ greatly from each other in pungency, fruit color and shape. There are peppers long and conical, red and green, yellow and black, very tiny and large, about ten centimeters long. Although the fruits of a bright red color of an elongated curved shape are most often used in cooking, it is therefore customary to call hot peppers red. The smell of all hot peppers is weak, and the taste is very pungent - sometimes more, sometimes less, and at the same time slightly sweetish.

The pods, when ground with the seeds, produce a hotter product. Particularly hot varieties of red peppers are known as chili, while the slightly hot ones are often called paprika. When ground, paprika also has a variety of shades of red - from orange to burgundy.

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Every housewife uses red pepper today, combining perfectly with a variety of other spices, especially garlic, coriander, basil, savory and bay leaves. By varying the dosage of these spices, you can give an unusual, exotic taste to even the simplest mashed potatoes or boiled rice. Moreover, hot peppers are found in most spice mixtures. They are flavored with salads, vegetable, meat and fish dishes, pepper is also used for canning vegetables.

Hot peppers perfectly complement meat - the famous goulash, soups, egg dishes and all kinds of crustaceans. Pepper is added to fish soups in small quantities, and to boiled fish - mixed with nutmeg, parsley, onions and dill. Separately, it is worth mentioning the use of red pepper in the preparation of sauces, to which it gives not only pungency, but also a beautiful color. Sauces and cheeses are very interesting with it.

At the same time, pepper is known to the world not only as a valuable, healthy, vitamin-rich vegetable, an irreplaceable widespread spice, but also as an excellent ornamental plant. The decorativeness of the culture of pepper is given to a greater extent by fruits that have a wide variety of colors and change their color in the process of growth and ripening.

Red pepper is not only a spice, but also a medicine

Since the 16th century, the fruits of hot peppers have also been used as a medicine. They contain the alkaloid capsaicin, which has an irritating effect, essential and fatty oils, carotenoids, saponins, carotene, phytoncides, mineral salts and other substances. Its fruits are rich in vitamins C, P and B. At the same time, it should be borne in mind that dust and pepper powder causes severe irritation of the mucous membranes and sneezing. It is especially necessary to protect your eyes. And the ingestion of large quantities of red capsicum by mouth can cause severe gastrointestinal upset. It is not recommended to use hot peppers for liver and kidney diseases. However, in moderate doses, red pepper stimulates the appetite, increases the secretion of gastric juice and bile, and thereby improves digestion.

In medicine, an alcoholic tincture of red capsicum is used to stimulate appetite, improve the secretion of gastric juice, digestion, stimulate menstruation when they are delayed, as well as for gastrointestinal disorders as a bactericidal agent. Outwardly, alcohol tincture, ointments and pepper plaster are used as an irritant to the skin and a distraction for sciatica, rheumatism, pain in nerves, muscles and joints.

Agrotechnics of red pepper

1. Red peppers are native to South America and therefore are very thermophilic, therefore in our middle zone and in more northern regions we have to grow them in greenhouses or hotbeds - the growth of pepper shoots stops when the temperature drops to 13 ° C, and at 0 ° C the plant generally dies. Pepper seeds germinate at 20-25 ° C.

2. In addition, the plant is very light-requiring.

3. Prefers warm, moist and very fertile soils.

4. Hot peppers are bred in seedlings, and the technology of its cultivation is no different from the cultivation of bell peppers.

Growing red pepper on a windowsill

Unlike bell peppers, which, due to their large dimensions, do not grow very much on the windowsill, hot peppers can make an excellent company with indoor flowers, and you will definitely get a dozen pods from a plant over the winter. To do this, you just need to dig a bush of pepper from the greenhouse in the fall and carefully transplant it into a suitable pot, cutting off the old shoots by half. Put the pot on a light window. The soil should be very fertile and loose with the addition of stale sawdust or agrovermiculite. Caring for such plants is ordinary, no different from caring for indoor plants, although in winter it is advisable for hot peppers to maintain a temperature of 18-20 ° C.

When growing and using hot peppers, remember:

1. About what to plant and grow in the same greenhouse or in the same greenhouse, bell peppers and hot peppers in no case should be. The peppers will be pollinated, and all the bell peppers will become bitter and completely inedible.

2. The fact that, unlike bell peppers, the fruits of hot varieties are harvested fully ripe, and not at the stage of technical maturity. This is due to the fact that the maximum amount of capsaicin accumulates in them by the time of full ripening, and it is this substance that determines the originality of this spice. If the fruits are ripe, then the pods are obtained with shrunken, thin pulp - it is by this sign that one can understand that they are ripe.

3. The fact that after harvesting for 5-6 days the fruits of hot pepper are dried in the air, scattered in a thin layer, then strung with a stalk on a severe thread and hung in the form of garlands. And only after complete drying is it used as a spice.

4. The fact that hot peppers are quite difficult to grind by hand, and therefore you can simply add pieces of pepper to the dish while it is cooking.