Pepper The King of Spices

Pepper The King of Spices

Introduction What is black and wrinkled like a tiny raisin? What has sent men sailing across the ocean and was once used as money? It's pepper! You may have seen pepper in a shaker. You may have sprinkled it on your food. But do you know what it is? Do you know where it comes from? The pepper you eat comes from a dried- up berry called a peppercorn. If you have ever seen a peppercorn, you might have thought it was a pebble. But it is not. It is a berry that grows on a vine. People use the whole peppercorn or crush it into tiny pieces. They use it to add flavor to food. Plant parts that are used to flavor food are called spices.

Pepper is a spice with a very strong flavor. People use it on meat and vegetables. You can mix it with other flavors to make plain foods taste better. Eating too much pepper can be bad for you. If you eat plain pepper, your tongue will feel like it is on fire. You might even feel hot inside. Some people can get sick if they eat too much pepper. Pepper is known as the King of Spices. This is because it is used more than any other spice in the world. As you read, you will find out that pepper was once even used as money!

How Pepper Grows The pepper plant grows as a long vine. The vines often wrap around a tree. Groups of round berries hang down from the vines. Each group can have thirty to seventy berries. When the berries dry out, they turn black and hard. They become wrinkled like a raisin. The dry berries are called peppercorns. Each peppercorn is smaller than a pea. Usually, people do not eat whole peppercorns. Instead, they use the type of pepper you see in a shaker. People use pepper grinder tools to grind peppercorns into tiny flakes. This makes pepper easier to eat.

Where Pepper Grows The pepper plant needs a lot of water to grow. This is why it is found in places that get a lot of summer rain. To dry out the berries, farmers also need a place with a warm, sunny autumn. By winter, the peppercorns can be used as a spice. One good place to grow pepper is the southwestern part of India. The weather is perfect for growing pepper vines. Farmers have grown pepper in India for thousands of years. The people of India used pepper to trade for things they wanted or needed.

A Popular Spice Pepper has been used in many ways. Long ago, people used it to make meat taste better. Some people thought eating pepper could help them when they got sick. They also used it to make their homes smell good. One place where pepper is popular is Europe. Hundreds of years ago, it was very hard to get this spice there. It did not grow in Europe, but many people still wanted it. There was a very small supply of pepper but a big demand for it. This meant that people who had pepper could sell it for a high price. Peppercorns were in such demand that they were sometimes used as money. People might get paid in peppercorns. They could use their peppercorns to buy things they needed. They could even pay their rent with peppercorns!