The Pepper People
Saveur|Summer 2019

The Baniwa, an Indigenous group in Brazil, have made a market for their ancestral chiles.

Nicholas Gill
The Pepper People

The slender, yellow-gree kapitsiriwi pepper is named after a blowpipe dart. Then there’s dzaka inapa, resembling a jaguar’s tooth, and kawathsidalipe, extremely hot and shaped like a clay pot. Spanning from orange to green to yellow to purple, 80 distinct pepper varieties are cultivated by the Baniwa, a people who have lived in small settlements in northwestern Brazil’s Içana River basin for thousands of years.

“As far back as I can remember, there were always peppers around,” says Alfredo Brazâo, a Baniwa man who eats these indigenous chiles with every meal. Arable land is sparse here, so many Baniwa families plant their gardens on hills in the jungle to avoid flooding, even if doing so requires a bit of a journey. Brazâo and I hike for more than an hour from the village of Yamado to a garden where one family is growing more than 500 plants. Along the way, he recalls how a shaman once gave his sister a pepper as part of an adulthood initiation ritual; his mother told her to “chew it, swallow it, and feel the pain.” The burn represents suffering, Brazâo says, and with patience, either can be overcome. The Baniwa will also rub chiles on the gums of infants, which they believe protects the children from evil spirits.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة Summer 2019 من Saveur.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة Summer 2019 من Saveur.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

المزيد من القصص من SAVEUR مشاهدة الكل
Raising a Better Bird
Saveur

Raising a Better Bird

Blue Apron founder Matt Wadiak has moved onto greener pastures, where happy chickens roam free.

time-read
2 mins  |
Fall 2020
One Good Bottle
Saveur

One Good Bottle

Tamara Irish is a natural winemaker. Way natural.

time-read
2 mins  |
Fall 2020
My Not-So-Secret Garden
Saveur

My Not-So-Secret Garden

Good (vegetable-laden) fences make good neighbors in one tiny town.

time-read
4 mins  |
Fall 2020
Pralines: How They Cook 'Em in New Orleans
Saveur

Pralines: How They Cook 'Em in New Orleans

Pralines: How They Cook ’Em in New Orleans

time-read
4 mins  |
Winter 2019-20
My Father's French Onion Soup
Saveur

My Father's French Onion Soup

Postwar Paris had a lifelong influence on James Edisto Mitchell—both as an artist and a cook BY Shane Mitchell

time-read
7 mins  |
Winter 2019-20
Our All-Time Best Recipes
Saveur

Our All-Time Best Recipes

If anyone should know if a recipe’s a keeper, it’s the person tasked with making sense of the original instructions—from the far reaches of Sri Lanka, say, or a famous chef who measures nothing. This might explain why many test kitchen staffers named favorites that their predecessors had tested and recommended. (Though a couple put forth recipes they developed themselves.) And while Saveur never shies away from the oddball authentic ingredient, the fare on the following pages is the stuff we cook at home, over and over again. Consider it global comfort food.

time-read
10+ mins  |
Winter 2019-20
Genever Is the Original Juniper Spirit
Saveur

Genever Is the Original Juniper Spirit

Don’t call it a comeback. Or gin

time-read
5 mins  |
Winter 2019-20
Tending The Bines
Saveur

Tending The Bines

Overshadowed by high-end viticulture, the art of growing hops for beer might not always get the recognition it deserves.

time-read
3 mins  |
Summer 2019
Field Of Dreams
Saveur

Field Of Dreams

The son of an innovative pea farmer is carrying on his father’s legacy.

time-read
1 min  |
Summer 2019
Jamaican Jerk Marinade - Fire And Spice
Saveur

Jamaican Jerk Marinade - Fire And Spice

Jamaican jerk is more than a marinade—it’s a smoky, flame-grilled cooking style that uses the best ingredients of its home island.

time-read
2 mins  |
Summer 2019