Bonnie Jo Horn age 10, of Peoria, I1l., or her question:
Where do we get pepper? .
Would you pay a fortune for a pound of pepper? There was a time when ordinary people could not afford a pinch of pepper ‑ not even a single sneeze In Europe during the Middle Ages, pepper was rated as a rare and priceless spice. You could use it to pay taxes. It was served only at lavish banquets. Even kings did not see the pepper shaker on the table at every meal.
This precious peppers of course, came from the vine of the pepper plant just as it still does. The tangy sneezy spice was ground from the seeds of a plant just as it still is. Perhaps' in olden days the pepper plant was hard to find or difficult to cultivate. Not at all, Sometimes the graceful vine even grew wild, Its berries could be gathered for free. However, it was always choosey about climate, and it still is. In its most expensive days, pepper grew only along the western shore of India
This is what made it expensive. For there was no known sea route to India. Bundles of pepper were toted overland: The journey was full of hazards. But even at fancy prices, people wanted pepper, A caravan of the spice might make a thousand percent profit ‑ if it arrived safely. Such luxury trading sent sailors seeking for a safer sea route to India. The price of pepper tumbled soon after the Portuguese rounded the Cape of Good Hope, But it was some time before ordinary people could afford to use the wonderful stuff every day.
Today, we use up thousands of tons of pepper every year. As you knows no table is properly set unless the salt and pepper shaker are in place. The cost to each of us is but a few pennies a year, No one would dream of trying to pay his taxes with pepper. All we need is brought to us inexpensively in sturdy steam ships.
Our pepper still corms from the pepper plant whose fancy name is piper nigrum. Almost all of it is carefully cultivated. The vines look like giant philodendron plant.
In the fields they are spaced to cluster around tall poles. Nowadays, the pepper plant has been persuaded to grow in Malaya and Indonesia as well as its native India. This has made it more plentiful and also helped to bring down the price,
Black pepper and white pepper both cone from the berries of the same leafy vine. The berries are small and poke among the foliage clustered on dainty spikes. The young berries are green. They turn yellow and ripen to a rosy red, When the young berries are gathered and dried they turn black. They are ground up to give us black pepper, The outside husks are removed from the ripened berries, The white insides of these berries are powdered to give us white pepper.
Next time you put the shaker on the table you may feel very grand, Once upon a times even a king could not afford to have all the pepper he wanted.