Red Peppers

[zanuck]

Two weeks ago in Torre del Mar Thursday market, we bought the "usual" green pimientos (the sort of long/banana shaped ones that you sometimes get served fried as a tapa or as a vegetable with your main course) and, from the same stall we bought matching red peppers.

We returned today and no stalls had the long red pimientos, only the rather chunkier/solid red peppers.

We must have looked in a dozen fruteria y vedurias for the red ones without success.

So now the stupid questions:
a) are the long red peppers simply green ones that have been left to ripen/redden?
b) are the long red peppers only available in a specific season and if so, when is that season (I guess not in the last week of September )
c) were we just lucky that the stall holder had red ones two weeks ago and that they aren't normally available in this part of Spain?
d) none of the above?

Thanks in advance.

[El Cid]

Yes, the long green ones ripen to red.

They are not so common now in Spain as the rounder "bell peppers" seem to have become the norm. Probably because that is what the export market demands and, yes, you were lucky to find them.

Sid

[zanuck]

Sid
Thanks for clarifying that for me.
It's a real shame that the red long ones aren't more available - we both prefer the taste and texture of them and the green to the "bell" type usually seen in UK shops and clearly seen here too.
I live in hope!
Z

[gavilan]

zanuck: when you move to your new place, you might try growing your own?!

[El Cid]

They are easy to grow. A couple of years ago they were selling some lovely, really sweet thin peppers in the market and I grew some from their seeds.

Alternatively you can buy commercial seeds easily, for example :-

http://www.thompson-morgan.com/vegetabl ... brid/941TM

Sid

[zanuck]

Sid thanks for the gardening tip and the link and gavilan - we were hoping to have some to eat soon, rather than wait until next year!!

[luckyjim]

I bought some in Supersol, maybe they still do them. They are also available at the Malaga indoor market

[zanuck]

Thanks lj
We tried our two local Supersols yesterday without success, none in all of the fruit and veg shops that we tried in Competa this morning and now hoping that Caleta de Velez street market may come up trumps tomorrow.

[zanuck]

I know that the entire forum community is waiting with baited breath to hear how we got on with our search for red peppers

None at all in Caleta de Velez market, but success in a small fruteria in a back street of Torre del Mar! - "La Nina de Peri"; price €1 for 2kg.

We bought a dozen and a mango and still had 25centimos change from a Euro.

Search over for now.
Z

[katy]

Phew careful, don't go crazy. Why not kick out next time and get 2 mangoes and spend a whole euro

[zanuck]

Katy
I'm sure that some of our readers north of Hadrian's Wall and to the east of Belgium would admire my thrift, but thanks for the thought

[Gasman]

Well that is a relief - have been following the thread indeed with bated breath So pleased you found your red peppers at last - and got a good deal too
All is not lost and there is hope for a happy existence in Andalucía after all
Mrs Gasman.
PS over here in Huelva we only ever see those long thin peppers as green ones in the shops though a neighbour did give us some red ones last year before pulling up the plants ... Ok - but we do prefer the bell peppers!!
Cheers