This is the first year that we attempted to grow bell peppers in our garden. A friend, who is a gardener extraordinaire, came over this spring to help us build a small raised bed for our first pepper crop. Throughout the summer we watched the plants grow, flower, and then bear small fruits. The small fruits grew slowly and gradually started to change color from green to red, with some shade of brown in between. As you can see from the photo below, some turned yellow! As November neared, we wondered if the numerous peppers would fully ripen before the weather became too cold.
Last week, almost overnight, a large percentage of the peppers turned almost completely red. We were excited, so we picked a couple and enjoyed them in our salad dressing that night. We sampled the peppers and found that they were some of the most flavorful red bells that we had ever tasted. There is no doubt that home grown vegetables tend to be incredibly flavorful, especially in comparison to their store-bought counterparts. These bell peppers were certainly no exception, but rather, exceptional.
Red bell peppers are well known for their vitamin C and beta-carotene content.
Here are some of the nutrition highlights of red bell peppers:
| One cup chopped red bell pepper | |
| Calories | 46.2 |
| Vitamin C | 190.3 mg |
| Beta-carotene | 2419.8 mcg |
I also looked up the nutrient content of green bell peppers for comparison:
| One cup chopped green bell pepper | |
| Calories | 29.8 |
| Vitamin C | 119.8 mg |
| Beta-carotene | 309.9 mcg |
Per calorie, the vitamin C content of red and green bell peppers appears to be similar, at least for the samples compared. Beta-carotene content, however, is much higher per calorie in red bell peppers than green. Ripeness appears to make a difference in this case.
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