A red bell pepper is really a mature green bell pepper that has been permitted to ripen on the vine. (Conversly, a green bell pepper is really an immature pepper that is fully developed, but not ripe.) When a green pepper is left on the vine, it will eventually turn red, orange, purple, or even brown, depending on the variety. The red bell pepper is the most common mature pepper. (Yellow peppers can be found in immature and mature varieties.) As bell peppers mature, their sugar content increases, so they become sweeter, and their vitamin A and C increases.

Bell peppers - and all their various chili cousins in the capsicum family - are native to the Americas. When Columbus landed in the New World, he was actually looking for a shorter route to the countries of Asia that produced valuable spices like black pepper, but he bumped into America quite by accident along the way. Seems he confused the capsicum family with black pepper, and misnamed the vegetable. It took about two centuries for botanists to figure out that sweet peppers belong to a totally different botanical family than black peppers.

California and Florida are the two largest bell pepper-producing states. Others include New Jersey, North Carolina, and Texas. Peppers are also imported from Mexico and Holland.

Culinarily Speaking
Bell peppers should have smooth, firm, glossy skin with no soft spots or shriveling, and feel heavy for their size. They like cool not cold temperatures, ideally about 45°F to 50°F -and they also need humidity to stay fresh. Peppers should not be stored near ethylene-producing food such as pears or apples, or they will rot quickly. Put peppers in plastic bags (to keep in the moisture) and they will keep up to five days in the refrigerator. Green peppers will keep slightly longer than the other, more ripe, varieties.

1 medium bell pepper will yield 1 cup chopped. Depending on the size, about 3 bell peppers will weigh 1 pound.

Nutritionally Speaking
Bell peppers contain vitamins A, B and C (up to 6 times that of orange juice!). Raw peppers have 30 per cent more vitamin C than cooked ones - and this vitamin pretty much disappears altogether when peppers are dried.