I've looked at the code and json files, but I can't seem to find out how you get the "pepper" item (croptopia:pepper) that is used in four recipes. There's no recipe for it, nor does it appear that anything drops it that I can tell.

Please advise, thank you.

Pepper plants have been added in 1.4.0

Pepper should drop in plains. See https://github.com/ExcessiveAmountsOfZombies/Croptopia/wiki/Crops

That is the chili pepper seeds and needs to be corrected in the wiki. The Pepper item (that looks like black salt) does not appear to have any source.

Oh, you're talking about the ground black Pepper (croptopia:pepper) and not the plant Chile Pepper (croptopia:chile_pepper).

Agreed, that recipe is missing as of version Croptopia-1.16.4-5-FABRIC-1.3.2.

Well, there are four food recipes that require that item, so they can't be made. Either the source for croptopia:pepper should be put back/updated, or those four recipes should be changed if croptopia:pepper is getting discontinued, whichever is easier to deal with/fits in the goal of the mod author.

I'm having the same issue too, It doesn't appear to have a recipe at all,
Though I've figured out how to make Paprika, Ground-Black Pepper is a problem as there is no recipe for it in the book.