I grow Szechuan peppercorns in my garden as I love the taste of this distinctive spice. Szechuan pepper is one of the ingredients in traditional 5 spice and one I can not live without in my spice apothecary. When I found out it grows in my zone I was thrilled and bought two small specimens from Portland nursery (PDX). This last year I got what I would call a bumper crop and of course used it all up over the winter. This year looks like a sad crop but at least I have some getting ready to turn red.
The Szechuan peppercorn plant is thorny with an interesting growing habit, it gets about six feet tall and trails off in a what seems to be a rather wild blackberry habit (above ground, it's not a vine) and then fills in, mine are large. The peppercorns have a mouth-numbing effect with a hint of that very recognizable Szechuan flavor. It's the outer red flesh that is used in cooking and it comes right off when it dries exposing a solid black seed.
I grow my Szechuan peppercorn plants as part of the underbrush (permaculture setup here) of a mature English walnut, along with two types of figs and berries bushes, they are thriving.
If you have a zone that can support this spice it is well worth it.
Bring on the heat. ;)
