The Pepper Vine

Before first going to India I had only the haziest idea of what a pepper plant looked like. Though I had seen photographs, I did not know, for example, that peppercorns grow on a vine, sometimes clambering more than ten metres high over a host tree. Nor did I know that there are more than a hundred pepper varieties growing in Kerala alone, let alone those indigenous to Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam. All this was soon to change as I set off on a tortuous drive to the Pazhoor plantation in Murikady, high up in Kerala’s Western Ghats. I was accompanied by Indian Spices Board field officer for the Kumilly region, the bright-eyed and knowledgeable Mr Ramalingum, or Ram as most people call him.