black pepper

[Kevin McCluskey]

In "On Food and Cooking" by Hal McGee (1984, Scribners)
the production of black and white pepper is described. 
Black peppers are harvested green and fermented exposed to the sun.
The black color on the surface is produced by
the fungus Glomerella cingulata (the telomorph of Colletotrichum
gloeosporioides).  White pepper is harvested ripe (red), then
fermented as black pepper, but before it is dried,
the skin and some pulp is removed. 
Green and red pepper are available from some "gourmet" shops and
catalogs.  I expect that these are dried without fermenting, but the
production of these varieties was not described in the book.