piperiá

Bell peppers or chillis: both the green kind that appear in Greek country salads or in yemistá and the spicy ones, notably made into chili flakes, boúkovo, in Macedonia.

κέρατα (kérata): long pale green horn-shaped peppers, that sometimes have a bit of a kick

πιπεριά Φλωρίνης (piperiés florínes)

πιπεριά τσίλι (piperiá chíli): chilli peppers

καυτερό πιπέρι (kafteró pipéri): hot spicy pepper

πράσινο πιπέρι (prásino pipéri): green bell pepers

χρυσή Ελληνική πιπέρι (chrysí Ellinikí pipéri): Golden Greek peppers, mildly hot usually pickled and a bit less bitter than the similar Italian pepperoncini. Both are grown from friggitello seeds.

τσούσκες (choúkes): red hot cayenne peppers

A Sad Story but Lessons Learned

The region of Western Macedonia, where Flórina is located, is spicy pepper territory par excellence. In Aridéa, east of Flórina, farmers grew the legendary Aridea pepper, considered the equal to Hungary’s paprika...until they went extinct decades ago when farmers planted other varieties in the same vicinity and they cross-pollinated, losing their special heat and flavour.

Lessons were learned and today in Amýntaio, on the shores of Lake Vegorítida, they take extreme measures to isolate the precious crop and seeds, keeping far from away from any other chillis. The Naoumidis family's Piperies Florinas are one of the biggest producers.