Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Capsicum baccatum
var.
pendulum
'Bishop's Crown' is also grown as an ornamental.
Europeans took to the pepper quickly. In 1493, Columbus carried peppers (
Capsicum frutescens
)
back with him to Spain; Spaniards brought
C. annuum
back with them 30 years later. In the 16th cen-
tury, peppers arrived in eastern and central Europe from the Iberian peninsula. By about the middle of
that century, the pepper had reached Italy and Hungary, and a multitude of pepper-based local dishes
came into being. The extensive use of the pepper in these two countries led to the development of
many new varieties, in particular, thick-fleshed varieties used for their raw flesh. Capsaicin-free variet-
ies were bred in the 19th century, and mildly hot varieties came to be around the turn of the 20th cen-
tury, through the accidental crossing of hot and sweet varieties.
Trade routes from Portugal brought peppers to Asia; from there, the Turks carried it to the Balkans,
and vegetable gardeners from the Balkans introduced the pepper to Austria. Eastern Austria sits in the
Pannonian Plain, an area of rich loamy loess soil that makes for good pepper growing; 'Neusiedler
Ideal', 'Wiener Calvill', and several other local varieties were developed here. In Hungary, peppers
were grown as a cheap alternative to black pepper. A typically Hungarian use of the pepper plant is to
dry and pulverize its fruits; indeed, the name for this spice in English, paprika, comes from the Hun-
garian word for pepper. The most important areas of pepper cultivation in Hungary are near Szeged on
the Tisza river and around Kalosca on the Danube river.
EGGPLANT, AUBERGINE
Solanum melongena
Eggplants (UK: aubergines) are perennial plants from tropical India, but they are normally cultivated
as annuals in temperate climates. Botanically speaking, the fruit is a berry, which is enjoyed broiled,
roasted, steamed, or sautéed. Older varieties have prickly stems and sepals, traits that have been slowly
bred away; newer varieties produce fruits weighing over 2 lb. (1 kg), though cold tolerance tends to be
the main emphasis of modern breeding. Eggplants are medium-heavy feeders and need lots of water
and warmth; they do not like cool nights. The leading producers of eggplant are China, Turkey, Japan,
and Egypt.
WHAT YOU'LL NEED
• six to 12 healthy plants
