Harvesting Pepper

Gongnov's front yard

This past week was Khmer New Year, so all of CRDT had a 9-day holiday. I was invited to spend the holiday with Gongnov (pronounced gung-now), one of the CRDT staff who worked closely with Julie. This was lucky because it is a real treat to experience a proper Khmer New Year and I haven't really been here long enough to make any close friends, so I just tagged along with Julie. Thanks Julie!

Gongnov comes from Kampong Cham Province where apparently, there is a lot of pepper harvesting. The picture above is of Gongnov's front yard. Her parents run a pepper farm, as do most of the neighbours, and they dry the pepper outside of their house on large tarps. It takes 3 days to dry a batch of pepper. Below is a picture of what pepper looks like in its original form. I had no idea! I feel so naive.

Pepper on the tree

 Pepper drying on the farm

Julie and I had the chance to pick pepper for a couple of hours. It was hot, but fun. Gongnov's family also gave us each a Kilo of pepper to take home. I hope it's not a problem going through customs!