Green bells are immature. They turn colors when ripe, the color depending on which variety you are growing. Most turn red. Others are just about rainbow colored, ranging from red to yellow to somewhat purple to almost black. It takes time and patience and a careful watch for insects and diseases to get to the colored stage. (I don't know of any that stay green through maturity but there may be some that do.) The mature ones taste differently, usually much milder and sweeter. Sandy

Sunscald. Thick fleshed varieties, like bells, are more prone than others. How to prevent it... well, if their in a container, rotate the container occasionally. In ground, shade cloth during hot, bright hours of the day can help. Or, you just accept the fact that some fruit may not make it. Kevin

Doea anyone have these seeds to trade? I'm looking for a large bell pepper to grow form seed up here that produces lots of large sweet fruit.

There are old 19th century pickling recipes for "mangoes," which aren't the fruit but small sweet bell peppers stuffed with various cabbage or other vegetable mixtures then packed in a vinegar solution. There are also Asian pickling recipes for stuffed bitter melon. Years ago (I mean many many years ago) I made mangoes stuffed with cabbage and pickled. I thought it was a Farm Journal recipe but darned if I can find the one I used. It's just too far back. And of course, canning standards have changed considerably since then. I do have two refrigerated mango recipes, one from Joy of Pickling and one from Pickles to Relish. That book also has a canned recipe for Small Mangoed Peppers stuffed with a mixture of chopped green tomatoes, chopped red tomatoes and a little onion. This is a lower pH mixture than a mango stuffed with cabbage (runs at 3.41 pH for plenty of leeway). Some of these recipes call for a salt brine and some don't. I'm still going to see if I can find the original old recipe just to see what it called for. I still remember stitching the tops on the peppers with kitchen string so the whole small stuffed peppers sat in the jar. I felt a little like Victor Frankenstein making them. I don't know how 19th century farm wives ever found the time to make things like that. Carol