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Green fruit spikes of peppercorns drying on mat in central Vietnam
About this photograph
- Creator
- Margery H. Freeman
- Date created
- May 1997
- Location
- Demilitarized Zone, Vietnam
- License
- This photograph copyright ©1997. Terms of use
See this photograph in context
- Contemporary life in Vietnam: Photographs and text describe contemporary life in Vietnam and the impact of economic and social reforms since the 1980s. (Page 11)
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In the classroom
- See our collection of articles on visual literacy for ideas on using photographs meaningfully in the classroom.
Green fruit spikes of peppercorns are piled on a mat in the sun to dry in central Vietnam. Black pepper, used in most of the cuisines of Europe and Asia, is made from the dried, unripe green berries of the Piper nigrum vine. The green berries are cooked briefly before drying to produce black peppercorns.
A valuable spice crop already traded from India to the Mediterranean during the time of the Egyptian pharoahs, peppercorns are one of Vietnam’s major cash crops. Currently Vietnam is the largest producer and exporter of pepper in the world.
