This is the time for Pepper harvesting

Pepper as we know is a condiment that is found in most households   Who will have their morning breakfast of  fried eggs without adding freshly ground pepper on the eggs?

We have a few pepper vines that we have mounted on walls and trees. We bought these vines when they were tiny from a nursery close by.

This is the time to harvest pepper.  The indication that it is ready for harvesting is when birds start pecking on them.  Then when we check the vines we see some ripened pepper. When pepper is ripe it turns red.

Getting pepper ready for the market is a long drawn process.  Once pepper is ready for harvesting, it is plucked and kep in a gunny bag for it to loosen up from the stocks  After a week or so they it is manually separated from the stocks.  The separated pepper is then put out in the sun for drying.  It takes about 8 days for pepper to completely dry up.  It is important that pepper is dried completely as otherwise it will have fungus on it.

Dried pepper is not even one tenth of fresh pepper in weight.

Pepper has great demand in the market.  It is sold to wholesalers who then sell it to retailers.  The rate of pepper is increasing day by day.

Pepper is a condiment that  is used the world over. Pepper has great health properties

Health Benefits of Black Pepper

Due to labour shortage however many do not cultivate pepper and that has created shortage of this commodity shooting up its price.

Pepper needs little care.  Once the creeper reaches maturity it will start yielding and as the years go the creeper will climb higher and yield more  Normally it is allowed to creep on areca nut and other trees. While manuring the trees the pepper also gets nourished. One does not have to separately feed the pepper vine.