Story

From Grandfather’s Hands to Ours: A Pepper Story Across Generations

The pepper farm from our grandfather, located about 1 km from the current farm, was planted over 50 years ago, and then our father continued to cultivate it at the farm as it is now for more than 35 years.

The main source of income for our family has driven us to strive to grow more crops, and it’s hard to tell when the passion for pepper became inseparable from our family.

With natural farming methods refined over time, we seem to have perfected our approach, allowing the pepper plants to blend harmoniously with the natural environment here.

The Unique Taste of Phu Quoc Red Pepper

Phu Quoc pepper has a delicious, spicy flavor and is one of the essential spices in many dishes, including red pepper (Hồng tiêu), a special type of pepper from the local people here.

The reason it is special is that when you come and experience fresh red pepper, you will feel a slight sweetness from the outer red skin, and after drying, the skin will have a light sweet aroma and a strong spiciness from the inside.

From Red to Black to White: The Handcrafted Journey of Phu Quoc Pepper

The people of Phu Quoc harvest pepper in batches from mid-December of the lunar calendar until the end of March of the lunar calendar each year (depending on the year, the plants may bear fruit early or late), primarily using manual harvesting methods by hands.

With the meticulousness and extensive experience of the locals, we select ripe red peppers and large green ones of sufficient quality to dry naturally under the sun for 3 to 5 days, during which the peppercorns will change color.

The red peppercorns will turn into pink pepper, the green peppercorns will become black pepper. We soak the red peppercorns in water for 10 to 15 days to separate the red outer layer, resulting in white pepper (also known as “Sọ” pepper) inside.

Why We Fertilize in the Rain: The Wisdom of Pepper Farmers

During the harvest season, we also have to take advantage of the hot weather to prepare materials for fertilizing the plants, which involves removing the salt from the fish that the fish sauce producers have mixed together.

With the ratio of fish mixed with a lot of salt to make fish sauce, we cannot use it directly as fertilizer for the plants and must eliminate as much salt as possible.

This stage requires patience as well as enduring the very foul smell, the intense heat, and the physical labor involved.

Many years ago, we used small marine fish for fertilizer, but due to high prices, we had to choose fish from the end of the fish sauce harvest.

Then, during the rainy season, my father and many others would till the soil in new areas to mix the fish remains with cow manure.

The high protein content and other beneficial substances in the fish, combined with the cow manure, help make the soil more fertile and loose, allowing the pepper plants to thrive even more.

After many days and several times mixing this mixture until it turns black like soil, we will dig a hole next to the tree, 60cm away from the trunk to avoid cutting too many roots, and we will apply it directly to the tree.

Why choose to fertilize the tree during the rainy season?

Because fertilizers have a hot characteristic, if you apply them during the dry season combined with this hot characteristic, it will harm the tree’s roots.

From Rain to Sun – The Pepper Garden Always Needs a Caring Hand

After completing the fertilization, we still need to take care of other processes, such as during the rainy season when strong winds can cause trees to fall; we will add new stakes to keep the trees more stable.

We also need to use a lawn mower to remove unnecessary weeds, which will help minimize the loss of a small amount of fertilizer in the soil, or when there is heavy rain, we need to open rows for better water drainage.

In the dry season, we must clear away fallen leaves to prevent the accumulation of diseases on the trees, and we need to pump water for irrigation, watering the trees 2 to 3 days 1 times.

The work continues from this stage to the next, and I see my parents always busy.

In addition to pepper, we grow many other kinds of plants on our farm

Cashew Tree

A very special type of tree that many customers have eaten the nuts from but may not know what the fruit, nut, and tree look like.

For this tree, only the nuts are harvested from outside of the 1 fruit, which is red and yellow in color. Inside the fruit, there is a lot of juice with a sweet but mostly astringent taste (sometimes a few trees have fruit that is sweeter).

Monkeys really enjoy eating it because during the harvest season in the dry season, they look for large, juicy fruits to eat, but they only eat the fruit and not the nuts, as the outer shell of the nut has a latex (cashew oil) that can irritate the mouth.

Jackfruit Tree

A type of tree with a fragrance that is not too strong but very sweet inside.

The outer skin resembles spikes, and our farm only harvests when the fruit is ripe and fragrant.

Jackfruit can be dried, made into smoothies, and when the fruit is still young, it can be cooked.

Durian Tree

A type of fruit with a strong aroma that can be quite challenging for first-time tasters, but once you are captivated by its flavor, it becomes an addictive that stimulates your taste buds, making you crave more when you catch a whiff of it.

At the farm, you can also smell the fragrance of durian flowers, which is not as strong as when the fruit is ripe; the flowers have a sweet scent that attracts many bees for pollination.

In our farm, we only harvest when the fruit has a fragrant smell and do not harvest when the fruit is not ripe and lacks this aroma.

Papaya Tree

A very characteristic plant in Vietnam that is extremely useful.

When the fruit is mature and has a light green-yellow color, we use it to cook soups or make salads.

When the outer skin of the fruit turns yellow, it can be eaten directly or made into smoothies, which are very sweet and good for health.

Mango Tree

My house has two types of mangoes: green and sweet yellow ones. The green one is called Taiwanese Mango, and it is usually very large, sometimes weighing over 1 kg/ 1 fruit. We enjoy trying it with various salt pepper mixes or making salads with paired with wine and beer on holyday.

The sweet yellow ripe mango is called Thanh Ca Mango. When it’s in season, I see the fruit turns slightly yellow we will picking it and letting it ripen for a few days until it becomes a bright yellow and very sweet.

However, my parents prefer not to use a knife to peel it; they eat it directly by using their mouths to remove the skin.

Avocado Tree

The avocado tree, especially the 034 variety in Vietnam. It was a fortunate coincidence when I saw many trees being grown and bearing fruit in Dong Thap Province, so I bought some seedlings to plant, and the results exceeded my expectations.

After more than three years, the tree has produced flowers and set fruit, but the strange thing is that the same tree produces two types of fruit: large fruit (female) and small fruit (male).

Both fruits are very delicious, but we prefer the smaller one; when ripe, it is extremely creamy, sticky, and sweet.