Pepper!

Many beautiful varieties of pepper are grown in Wayanad. Here are three remarkable ones.

Panniyur-1

Panniyur-1 is the most popular pepper in Wayanad, today. Developed in 1966 at the Pepper Research Station, Kerala Agricultural University, Panniyur, it is the world’s first hybrid pepper, and in our farmers’ opinion, still the best! Panniyur-1 is priced for its high yield, the long spike being full of large, round pepper corns. It is easy to pluck as the corns do not get dislodged easily and saves on labor.

Wayanadan Chetty Mulake / Bolt Pepper

Wayanadan Chetty Mulake or Bolt Pepper as it is often named, has perhaps some of the biggest and heaviest pepper corns of any variety. The vine has large leaves, and climbs quickly to the top of the tallest trees. This vine is famed for its longevity, but with the coming of Panniyur-1, cultivation of this ancient variety is now on the decline.

Eyeveeran

One of the older varieties of pepper now facing extinction is the Eyeveeran. A vine with small leaves and smaller spikes of pepper, thickly set with heavy, tiny pepper corns, it is a riveting sight to see nearly a fourth of the crop with multiple offshoots from the main spike, all full of pepper corns. Eyeveeran, however, takes a month longer to mature, and is more labor-intensive to pick, because of the large number of short, thin pepper spikes on the vine.