Black Pepper in Costa Rica

Description:

The pepper (piper nigrum) is a liana or vine of the family of the Piperaceae that needs a support to which it adheres for its growth, its propagation is in cuttings or layers that occur in abundance in the growth process.

Types:
The black, white, green and red peppers come from the same plant. What varies is the process that hurdles suffer for preparation.

1- The Black Pepper: Commonly dried while exposing it to a continuous sun light.
2- White pepper: The same fruit is placed in water for a period of 12 or 13 days, when the peel fells off and washed with abundant water, the white seed is left and ready to dry.
3- The Red and Green Pepper: It is a manual selection of the fruit that after washing is dried or kept in vinegar or liquor depends on the taste.

General History of Pepper

Its history begins in the taste of the Romans by the Pipper Nigrum, that arrived by merchants. In the 15th century, he began a race to capture spice-producing markets focused on the places that some Arab merchants kept with extreme care. In the South of India, in KERALA, the cradle of the Pepper where the indigenous tribes used it to season and salt their meals. It produces heat and stimulates the senses.
Vasco Da Gama, a 37-year-old Portuguese who disembarked on the Malabar coast in southwest India in May 1498, becoming the first European to discover the Indian sea route, winning the race for the species. With these words “for Christ and for the species.”

Pepper’s History in Costa Rica:

In Costa Rica, several types of pepper are planted, but the most commercialized is the Balancota. It is currently grown in the Northern Zone of Costa Rica, reaching the highest levels of Piperina registered so far.
This species registers an annual production of up to 8 or 10 green kilograms per year depending on the assistance given. Converting since the 90s an opportunity for families with small plots with little investment capacity.

Uses and Investigations:

Especially culinary, it helps the conservation and flavoring of food, it is an excellent digestive, without counting the countless uses that studies have thrown away from the content of the oils that are concentrated in its interior.

Legends:

The Indians said that the pepper forests are protected by flying snakes. The population, as the fences matured, set fire to the plants to ward off the snakes and the flames blackened the grains and gave it a spicy flavor. Then they collected the fences quickly before the snakes returned furious to take revenge.