Pick a peck of colorful peppers

red and yellow bell peppers

Have you made a recipe that called for a red or yellow bell pepper and were shocked at the price of them in a grocery store? It’s one of my pet peeves. I priced green bell peppers today; they’re $.88 a pound, but a red, yellow or orange bell pepper is $1.74 a pound. Twice as much! They need the exact same growing conditions as the green ones, the plants are equally prolific and take about the same amount of time to be ready to harvest.

Maybe there is a legitimate reason for the difference in price, but I can’t imagine what it could be. I think stores charge more because they can.

I was going to make corn chowder and needed to buy a red and yellow bell pepper (several years ago) I decided to plant the seeds and see what they’d produce. I’ve had an abundance of home grown peppers ever since.

Pepper seeds have a high germination rate, just plant the seeds about 1/4″ deep and after they get their second set of true leaves transplant them to where you want them to grow. They make great container plants. A tomato cage will keep them upright. Peppers need plenty of water, but they also need good drainage.

A large part of the Tucson area is frost-free and peppers can be grown year-round. The area where we live is always 8-10 degrees colder at night. Freezes are the norm rather than the exception, so I grow mine in a small greenhouse.

As with most vegetables, young plants are more productive than old ones. Every year I start new plants and as soon as they’re producing I get rid of the old ones. If you have several plants you’ll often have more peppers ready to pick than you want to eat. They’re ideal for freezing. Just seed them, cut them into strips (of any width) and put them in a freezer bag. No blanching needed!

So say good-bye to outrageous grocery prices and grow your own colorful peppers.

Lois Britton

An accountant by trade and a food blogger since 2009, Lois Britton fell in love with Polish cuisine during the years she lived in Poznań, Poland. As the creator of PolishHousewife.com,  she loves connecting readers with traditional Polish recipes. Lois has a graduate certificate in Food Writing and Photography from the University of South Florida. She is the author of The Polish Housewife Cookbook, available on Amazon and on her website.