Shocking News About Bell Peppers

Just had to throw in this
cute picture from the 
Wiki article.

Have you ever gone grocery shopping and noticed that red, orange, and yellow bell peppers cost two to three times as much as green bell peppers?


Have you ever asked why?


As I was pondering this deep question the other day, the answer popped into my mind: green bell peppers must simply be unripened yellow, orange, or red bell peppers.


It just makes sense. Since farmers are able to harvest green bell peppers earlier, they are able to produce more crops in a single year than if they were to dedicate their fields to ripening them all the way. This would raise the supply of green bell peppers and therefore decrease the cost. (I dedicate that analysis to my dear friend who majored in economics. Hopefully I got it right.) Also, I imagine farmers are able to ship them much more easily since green bell peppers are further from rotting than their more colorful counterparts.


I hopped online and in .24 seconds, Wikipedia confirmed. "Cultivars of the plant produce fruits in different colors, including red, yellow and orange. The fruit is also frequently consumed in its unripe form, when the fruit is still green." 


And now I have officially dedicated about 30 minutes of my life to thinking, researching, and writing about bell peppers. I hope that little fact is as interesting to you as it was to me.