This morning while I was prepapring vegetables to add to my egg white omelet for brunch, I came across something that sort of freaked me out in a fascinating, but still scary, way. I cut open a red bell pepper and when I peered inside to see if I had cleared the seeds, I saw a mutant green growth in the top! It kind of looks like a curled leaf or perhaps the beginning of a tiny new bell pepper.
It made me think my bell pepper was a mutant, and I wasn't sure if it was natural, or the result of some strange alien voodoo. What is wrong with this bell pepper? Is there something wrong with it? Will I die if I eat it? Or will I just spontaneously sprout small green bell peppers from somewhere on my body? My imagination sort of went crazy.
Then I got hungry so I added the pepper to the pan for the omelet. I have yet to see if I sprout bell peppers on my body somewhere.
Cheese Course: Brebis Pardou
A transcendent summer tomato salad
Sliced bread turns 80 today
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-31-2007 @ 3:49PM
Kiwi C. said...
Sheesh, this happens all the time! I've been finding these in my peppers for years!
Reply
3-31-2007 @ 3:58PM
Stephanie said...
I can't believe you haven't seen one before! Very common, I get a bell pepper with one every few months.
Reply
3-31-2007 @ 4:53PM
Donna said...
Most peppers I get have these. Even though I'm used to them they do occasionally freak me out.
Reply
3-31-2007 @ 6:40PM
lisa said...
A pepper baby! The first time I ever saw one, I was 19 years old and cooking dinner while tripping my brains out (this was a Very Long Time Ago). It was... freaky. I've seen hundreds and hundreds of pepper babies since then, and every time I get a little shivery feeling across my scalp remembering my first.
Reply
3-31-2007 @ 7:04PM
quinn said...
I found one of those in a pepper the other day.. and then I ate it. It was really weird. =/
Reply
3-31-2007 @ 11:00PM
Anna said...
Very funny question! But don't worry, it is perfectly normal and you will be just fine! It's just a little clone pepper! It happens all of the time!
Reply
3-31-2007 @ 11:16PM
Michele said...
These little peppers will do you no harm. I've been eating them for the past 20 years. It's a kickback bonus!! LOL ;)
Reply
4-01-2007 @ 12:34AM
Tamsin said...
Yep, just a baby pepper, very common!
Reply
4-01-2007 @ 2:07AM
dragonet2 said...
The weirdest one I got lately was in a huge red pepper and looked like a 1" mini-me of the parent/clone.
They're normal, They're part of the way bell peppers grow. Bit of a bonus, I say!
Reply
4-01-2007 @ 11:41AM
John said...
Dear God, Sarah...get out of the house! NOW!!
No, just kidding. I encounter these things about twice a month...usually it's in red or yellow bell peppers, rarely in the green ones.
If I could find them consistently, I'd build an appetizer or a salad out of them.
Reply
4-01-2007 @ 2:01PM
Dr Electro said...
Ditto, likewise and even longer. I first encountered one of these sweet and tasty babies in 1960. I was helping my mother get dinner together. I thought I had found an edible treasure. She let me eat the little pepper and I learned that I was right.
I guess I have eaten hundreds of them in the years since. You are safe, Sarah. Enjoy.
Reply
4-06-2007 @ 3:20AM
zac said...
I've seen this also happen in tomatoes a few times, once every seed inside one of my tomatoes was already germinated and green when we cut it open,with a few millimeters of growth. A more adventurous female companion at the time tasted it,but I was scared.
Reply
4-06-2007 @ 11:24AM
Joseph Dadey said...
Please, don't beleive these people who say this is normal. They are unfortunate victims of the alien brain pod. These alien pods are placed inside seemingly harmless bell peppers so that it can implant itself in your brain. I know because I lost many a loved one to these pods.
Reply