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http://www.vegkitchen.com - Getting to Know Pepper Posted By
Bharat B. Aggarwal PhD On June 21, 2011 @ 3:37 pm In Healthy
Kitchen,Natural Foods Guides | No Comments Excerpted from
Healing Spices by Bharat B. Aggarwal, PhD, Sterling Publishing,
2011. Like grapes, black pepper grows on perennial vines. But
pepper vines soar to a height of 30 feet or more—you can see
them trellising swaying palm trees in the state of Kerala on
India’s Malabar coast, where black pepper is big business and
pepper vines are everywhere. The vines have large, shiny leaves
with spiky extensions called catkins that fill with peppercorns,
the fruit of the pepper vine. A catkin full of peppercorns is a
twisty stalk densely packed with what looks like shiny beads.
After peppercorns bud, they gradually turn dark green—the sign
that they’re ready to be picked and dried. As peppercorns dry,
the peppercorn’s outer layer (called the pericarp) turns thick,
rough, oily, and black. At this point, the