tidbits vernon 239 sept 11 2015 pepper online

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September 11 - 17, 2015 Issue 00239

by Janet SpencerIt’s called the King of Spices for good reason. For centuries it served as the cornerstone for various economies and it inspired trade, conquest, and exploration in search of better trade routes and new supplies. It’s the world’s most traded spice, accounting for 20% of the entire spice trade. Come along with Tidbits as we discover that pepper is nothing to sneeze at!

THE HISTORY OF PEPPER• The word pepper originated with the Sanskrit

word ‘pippali.’ It went into the Latin language as ‘piper’ and then into German as ‘pfeffer.’ The word pepper was used in a figurative sense to mean ‘spirit’ or ‘energy’ as far back as the 1840s. Sometime in the early 20th century, it was shortened to ‘pep.’

• Pepper is one of the oldest and most important spices in human history. Pepper was the first spice to make its way into Northern Europe as the Roman Empire spread. Back in the days when salting was the only method of preserving meat, pepper was valued because it gave food added ‘pep.’

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• Historians discount the myth that pepper was popular because it disguised the taste of rotten meat, saying that nothing can disguise the taste of rotten meat. Now you can buy a year’s supply of pepper for a few dollars, but it used to cost an ounce of gold to buy an ounce of pepper.

THE ORIGIN OF PEPPER• Black pepper comes from the berries of a

tropical vine in the botanical family called Piperaceae. The pepper that we sprinkle on our food is entirely different from the red peppers, bell peppers, chili peppers, and jalapeno peppers which come from the Capsicum family. Those are fruits, whereas black pepper is a berry.

• Columbus, searching for a shorter route to the pepper supply of India, discovered the New World. Because he was desperate to find pepper, everything that he came across which had a hot taste was dubbed “pepper.” That’s why today we have green peppers and chili peppers.

• Black pepper grows best in moist tropical areas and is native to southern India. Currently Vietnam is the world’s largest producer and exporter of pepper, producing 34% of the world’s supply. Other top exporters include India, Indonesia, Brazil, and Malaysia.

• Pepper vines grow up to 30 feet (9 m) tall, killing any tree they clamber over. On modern farms, they are kept to 12 feet (3.6 m) to make harvest easier, and they climb up poles rather than trees.

• Each vine becomes productive after three or four years, and will bear fruit every third year for up to 40 years. A good vine will produce up to 12 pounds (5.4 kg) of peppercorns annually. The pepper comes from berries that hang in clusters off the vine like tiny little grapes.

• Much of the world’s pepper is grown on family farms in India and Malaysia where home-garden plots may yield only one or two pounds (.5 to 1 kg) of pepper per year.

• When monetary value is considered, peppercorns are the most widely traded spice in the world. However, if weight is considered, slightly more chili peppers are traded than peppercorns.

PIPERINE• The chemical in pepper called piperine

(pronounced PIE-pur-een) is what gives pepper its bite. Each peppercorn is made up of about five to seven percent piperine. It’s an irritant and when it comes in contact with delicate nasal passages, it causes a sneeze to clean it out. Piperine stimulates mucous membranes and it is also a diaphoretic, meaning it causes perspiration. Therefore, if you have a cold and eat a good peppery soup, it may help your congestion clear up.

PEPPER POPULARITY• Black pepper is the top selling spice in America.

• Americans consume 37 million pounds of pepper per year altogether.

• Worldwide consumption totals 130 million pounds annually.

• The average American will shake seven ounces (.2 kg) of ground pepper onto their food at the table each year.

PEPPER FACTS• Studies have shown that pepper stimulates the

digestive tract, increases the appetite, and aids digestion.

• Pepper starts losing its flavor as soon as it’s ground, becoming completely flat in taste as the volatile oils evaporate. Ground pepper should be kept in a tightly sealed container in the refrigerator to preserve its spiciness. Whole peppercorns, on the other hand, will keep their flavor forever.

• Pepper should not be added before cooking because it reacts to heat and turns bitter. Instead, sprinkle it on as a garnish after the cooking is over. (This is why waiters offer to pepper your food after the meal has arrived at your table.)

• Ground pepper will not dissolve in water, but when dissolved in alcohol, it quadruples in pepper power.

BAD LUCK• Eddie Collins was an infielder for the Chicago

White Sox in the early 1900s. He had a habit of sticking a piece of gum on the button on the top of his cap when he went to bat. If he got two strikes, he would take the gum off the cap and chew on it vigorously for a few minutes for good luck. But one day teammate Ted Lyons secretly sprinkled pepper on the gum just before Eddie went to bat. When Eddie got two strikes, he started chewing. He spat— and then struck out.

PEPPER AS MEDICINE• Pepper decoctions are widely used in traditional

Indian medicine and as a home remedy for relief from sore throat, throat congestion, and coughs.

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He came up with a nonsense name that fits all these qualifications. What’s the company called? (Extra credit for knowing George’s last name and bonus points for knowing the name of the $1 camera.) (Answer below)

NOTEWORTHY INVENTIONSGORO YOSHIDA

• In 1932 Germany released a new camera called the Leica. Billed as the best camera on earth, it caused a sensation in Japan. However, it sold for 420 yen at a time when 70 yen per month was considered high pay.

• At the time, a man named Goro Yoshida had a job repairing motion picture cameras and projectors in Tokyo. He often traveled to China to buy parts he needed. One day a trader in Shanghai asked him, “Why do you come to China for camera parts? Your country builds battleships and airplanes; why can’t you build cameras?”

• Intrigued, Yoshida disassembled a Leica camera, examining it carefully. He found it was made of ordinary materials, and he couldn’t understand why something made of brass, aluminum, and rubber should be so expensive. It made him angry.

• So he went into business with the intention of inventing an affordable camera. By 1934 he had a prototype. Yoshida named the camera and the company Kwanon, after the Buddhist goddess of mercy. He made three functioning prototypes, and then sold the company. The new owners offered the cameras for sale in 1935 at half the price of a Leica.

• The name of the company was simplified in spelling when the camera was released to an English-speaking world. It’s pronounced almost the same, but the English pronunciation of the word means ‘a code of laws’ or ‘a set of fundamental principles.’

Piperine has some antimicrobial properties, but at the concentrations present when pepper is used as a spice, the effect is small. Piperine also enhances energy metabolism in the body and has been shown to have antioxidant and anti-carcinogenic properties. It has been shown that piperine can dramatically increase absorption of various nutrients, but when taken in large amounts it also has an irritating effect upon the intestines.

• Some people believe pepper can help cure vitiligo, which is a skin disease that causes some areas of skin to lose its normal pigmentation, turning it white in patches. (Michael Jackson suffered from this affliction.) According to researchers in London, piperine can stimulate the skin to produce pigment. Topical treatment of piperine combined with ultra violet light therapy is much better than the other treatments for vitiligo.

• Piperine is a natural insecticide and can be used in the garden. Mix a teaspoon full of ground pepper with a quart of warm water and spray.

• The volatile oils from black peppercorns are used in the manufacture of perfume in order to provide a warm and earthy odor.

NOTEWORTHY INVENTIONS

GEORGE• George’s hobby was photography. He was

going on vacation and he wanted to take pictures. The problem was that it was the 1880s, the camera weighed 30 pounds (13 kg), and it took hours to produce a single photo. George decided to find a better way.

• It took him three years to invent a better way. First he invented a dry glass plate instead of the wet glass plate; this simplified the process. Next he invented a way to put the emulsion on paper instead of glass. This was a miraculous improvement, but professional photographers wouldn’t use it because you could see the grain of the paper through the photo, and glass was still superior.

• So George began to market it to the amateur photographer. In 1888 his camera cost $25 at a time when a new suit cost $15, so sales were slow. Then he discovered cellulose.

• With cellulose film, the quality was sharp, the camera was small, and the price was cheap. He began selling cameras that were pre-loaded with 100 negatives. People would take 100 photos and then return the entire camera to the company. The company would develop the negatives, print them out, re-load the camera with 100 more negatives, and return the entire package to the customer.

• By 1896 he’d sold around 100,000 cameras. However, in 1900 he introduced a camera priced at $1 which was so simple even a child could take pictures. It was a sensation.

• George decided the name of his company had to be short, simple to spell, easy to pronounce, and impossible to confuse with anything else.

* “When moving, use foam plates as separators for your dinner plates. Use kitchen towels to wrap serving platters. If you have a box that separates glasses, drop a spice jar into each glass. Use all the space, and you’ll have fewer boxes to move.” -- P.L. in South Carolina

* To remove stubborn hard-water deposits from a shower head (without removing it), use this trick: Add a cup of plain white vinegar to a zipper-top sandwich bag (or a larger bag with added vinegar to fit larger showerheads). Submerge the shower head in the vinegar and draw the plastic bag up tightly around the stem. Use a rubber band to secure the bag around the shower head. Leave overnight. Remove, scrub and shower to release the deposits.

* Borax can be used to keep sidewalks free of weeds. Simply sprinkle a little Borax on the side-walk and sweep into the cracks. This is a very ef-fective weed killer, but it also will kill your grass if you use too much, so keep it in the cracks only!

* “Have a stripped screw? Place a wide rubber band over the head and insert your drill. The rub-ber band fills in the stripped spots and makes the drill catch the screw. It works most of the time.” -- D.D. in Nebraska

* “Make audio recordings or short videos of you reading your children’s favorite books, then play for them when you are busy doing housework, working or cooking.” -- K.A. in Oregon

* If you have a sticky zipper, try running a candle along the zipper face, then zipping it up and down a few times.

Send your tips to Now Here’s a Tip, 628 Virginia Drive, Orlan-do, FL 32803.

(c) 2015 King Features Synd., Inc.


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* It’s not known who made the following sage obser-vation: “I can picture a world without war, a world without hate. And I can picture us attacking that world, because they’d never expect it.”

* Dom Perignon -- he of champagne fame -- was a Benedictine monk.

* Now that school is back in session, those who had the summer off might be suffering from dysania -- finding it difficult to get out of bed in the morn-ing. Some of us, of course, experience dysania year-round.

* If you’re one of those parents who has to be careful walking around the house barefoot, you probably will not be surprised to learn that the LEGO compa-ny makes more than 3,500 different pieces in more than 60 colors.

* Weddings in Sweden are not for the jealous type. In that country, tradition states that if the bride leaves the room, all the men line up to kiss her. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander, though -- if the groom leaves, all the women are supposed to get in line to demonstrate their affection. I imagine very few exes are invited to Swedish weddings.

* British writer Lewis Carroll -- best known for his book “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” -- invent-ed the idea of the dust jacket for books.

* Those who study such things say that a parakeet would rather look at itself than at another parakeet. In a test, the birds were placed in cages side-by-side, then one was removed and a mirror put in its place. The parakeet that was left spent quadruple the time looking at its reflection as it did looking at its com-panion.***Thought for the Day: “This is the final test of a gen-tleman: his respect for those who can be of no pos-sible service to him.” -- William Lyon Phelps

• Though he had long since left the company, by the time Goro Yoshida died in 1993 at the age of 93, the company he founded had become a multinational corporation that specializes in optical equipment, copiers, and computer printers. What’s it called?

(Answer below)

ALCATRAZ• “Alcatraz” is the Portuguese word for pelican;

it comes from the word meaning the bucket of a waterwheel.

ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ

• The island of Alcatraz off the coast of California near San Francisco was first used as a military fortress beginning in the 1850s. Then it was a military prison for years before becoming a federal penitentiary in 1934. The prison was closed in 1963 because it had become too expensive to operate. Now it’s a tourist destination.

• Over the years, 36 prisoners were involved in escape attempts. Seven of those were shot and killed; two drowned; 22 were re-captured; and five remain unaccounted for but are presumed to have drowned. One of the escape attempts served as inspiration for the 1979 movie “Escape from Alcatraz.”

• Guards on Alcatraz Island allegedly told prisoners that the island was surrounded by sharks who had had their right fins removed so that they could do nothing but swim in circles around the island. This was thought to deter prisoners from breaking out and swimming to the mainland. In truth, although there are sharks swimming in the waters off Alcatraz, they are not the man-eating variety, even with both fins.

• It’s about a mile and a half from the island to shore, a hard swim but by no means impossible. In fact, each summer 1,000 amateur athletes compete in the Escape From Alcatraz triathlon. First they swim the mile

For Advertising Call (250) 832-3361 TidbitsVernon.com Cosita Publishing and a half (2.4 km) from Alcatraz Island. Then they take an 18-mile (29 km) bike ride through Golden Gate Park, and they finish up with an eight-mile (12.8 km) run through the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

Answer: Kodak, George Eastman, Brownie.

FAST FACT• During the years Alcatraz was used as a federal

prison, the average length of stay for an inmate was five years.

FAMOUS INMATES

• A total of 1,545 men served time on Alcatraz, the most famous of which was Al Capone, who was incarcerated there for four and a half years. Capone was transferred to Alcatraz from the penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia because his ‘family’ members moved into a hotel next to the prison and communicated with him constantly, allowing him to continue to run his crime organization in Chicago. On Alcatraz he was cut off from this contact. Capone behaved so well at Alcatraz that he was allowed to play the banjo in the inmate band, called the Rock Islanders.

• Robert Stroud was convicted in 1909 of having murdered a bartender when he was 18 years old. He was sent to Leavenworth, where he proved to be a difficult and troublesome prisoner. He killed a guard and was sentenced to death, which was commuted to life without parole.

• At Leavenworth he rescued a small injured bird which sparked a lifelong love of birds, especially canaries. He raised them, wrote about them, and corresponded with experts. But when prison officials discovered that some of the equipment he ordered supposedly for his birds was instead being used to build an illegal moonshine still, he was transferred to Alcatraz. He spent the next 17 years there before being transferred to a prison in Missouri, where he died in 1963. Although he was never allowed to keep birds while imprisoned at Alcatraz, he still became known as the Birdman of Alcatraz.

• Robert Stroud was denied permission to see the 1962 movie starring Burt Lancaster that was based on his life.

Answer: Canon.

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End of Summer Chili

A filling soup is a welcome change from the same old sandwiches, wouldn’t you agree? Well then, spice up your day by savoring a bowl of this at lunchtime!

8 ounces extra-lean ground turkey or beef1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper1/2 cup chopped onion10 ounces (one 16-ounce can) red kidney beans, rinsed and drained1 cup (one 8-ounce can) tomato sauce2 cups peeled and chopped fresh tomatoes2 cups water2 tablespoons chili seasoning

1. In a large saucepan sprayed with olive-oil-fla-vored cooking spray, brown meat, green pepper and onion. Stir in kidney beans, tomato sauce, tomatoes and water. Add chili seasoning. Mix well to combine.2. Bring mixture to a boil. Lower heat and sim-mer for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Freezes well. Serves 4 (1-1/2 cups each).

* Each serving equals: 189 calories, 5g fat, 15g protein, 21g carb., 464mg sodium, 7g fiber; Diabetic Exchanges: 2 Vegetables, 1/2 Meat, 1 Starch.

(c) 2015 King Features Synd., Inc.

tidbits vernon 239 sept 11 2015 pepper online

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