Being an island, Phu Quoc’s economy was heavily dependent on fishing before the people realized that the pristine waters by the creamy beaches bore enormous potential for tourism. Besides fishing, Phu Quoc was known for agriculture and pearl culture as well. I managed to visit all such representative ventures in one day.

The occasion was a visit to the Starfish Beach off of the fishing village of Rach Vem. It lies on the very northern side of the island. Such a trip required hiring a driver for a full day. I figured that, since I had the driver with me, I should visit all other sites of interests. I wanted to see the black pepper farm that shows the process of farming and drying (not the one in the urban area, which really is only for tourists to purchase black pepper). The driver suggested seeing pearl jewelry, I said yes to that. And finally, I wanted to visit the Din Cau Temple close to the Cho Dem Phu Quoc Market (the Night Market).  As I said, I did not visit the night market itself.

The Phu Quoc Pepper Farm

The Phu Quoc Pepper Farm is a family-owned business, three generations in the running. The grandfather opened his first farm close to where the current farm is.  The first chapter of this family business began 50 years ago. The father, who I will meet, would begin his operation at this current location 35 years ago.

A familiar pungency greets my senses and surely it is the distinctive fragrance of pepper. The diffusion of peppery fragrance in the air excited me. Black pepper is critical in any cuisine of the world but certainly it is the chief muse of zest in Vietnamese cooking.

I went into the farm and a lady immediately greeted me and the party before me. Having understood that I did not speak the same language as the previous group, the lady took up that last group and I was left standing there, not quite knowing what to do.

I immersed in the rustic scenery in the pepper farm. Right next to the family’s home lies the patch for pepper drying. The black peppercorns have been sorted in a single layer and dried in open air under generous daylight. Needless to say, that the farm is not only about pepper trees. The pineapple bush, papaya and banana trees being pregnant with nascent fruits, seemed to be singing a prelude to the summer season of fruition.

It was properly wintertime even in Phu Quoc, but maybe there wasn’t much a difference in this tropical haven. For about 15 minutes or so I felt strangely at home in a foreign land. I live in a village in Hong Kong and we have papaya trees in our garden too.

The Tour at the Hai Duong Pepper Farm

By this day in Phu Quoc, I came to see how the island’s people, in whatever variety of capacities that they are in, have a savviness that well positions the economy for tourism. Soon enough, an older man, smiling ear to ear, approached me and took me around the farm. He spoke no English, but he had his phone ready to translate what he was saying to me.

I realized quickly that this is the father of the current farm, the boss himself. His savviness is in that he knows which parts of his farms are points of interest.  He knows which spots are instagram worthy for tourists. He showed me where an auntie was harvesting peppercorns from the lush pepper trees. He was a bit surprised that I was keener to photograph the farm and the lady harvesting — more so than taking selfies. It seems to me that he is going through the usual course of business as he understood tourist expectations. He asked me frequently for my phone to snap photos of me.

He isn’t accustomed to taking the heritage tourist that I am around his farm. I had a million questions, as I was genuinely interested how the business is run, and the way that he grows pepper. But he was very intent on taking instagram pictures for me. I was keener to take pictures of him in this farm, and he was clearly surprised to have to serve as a model for my pictures.

He probably told me just one or two things about the farm. One thing was that the auntie picks only the mature peppercorns before putting them in the big basket. I wanted to ask him how he could judge whether the fruits are mature, but I couldn’t get the question through.

Before leaving, he took me into their farmhouse and cut up a fresh papaya for a snack. Even though we did not manage to chat very much, I left feeling the warmth of hospitality that is typical of Vietnam.

Pepper Growing

The pepper tree is a perennial vine. At Hai Duong Pepper Farm, they were in a lush shade and bushy. But the fruits were few when I visited. The people of Phu Quoc harvest their pepper during December and March of the lunar calendar. The pepper there is harvested by hand.

Pepper typically grows in tropical climates. It needs a lot of water to bear fruits, so much so that both heavy rainfall and humidity are a must for them to flourish. They are accustomed to hot weather too, in the range of 20 and 30 degrees Celsius.

The Hai Duong Pepper Farm engages in natural farming. For fertilizers, they mix the remains from fish sauce making with cow manure to turn up a black mass of natural fertilizer. This process takes a whole lot of effort, because they must manually remove the heavy salt content from the fish before it can be turned into fertilizers. They apply the fertilizer by digging a big hole about 60cm from the trunks of the trees and burying the fertilizer there.

It takes 3-5 days to dry pepper in open air. The berries (peppercorns) will change color during drying.

Bring Home the Pepper!

And finally, I arrived at the products counter and considered the goodies to bring home. There were white pepper, black pepper and red pepper on sale. I then understood that red pepper is a special crop at this pepper farm. I have never seen red pepper before, and so I decided to bring that home because it’s uncommon.

After getting home, I blended those red peppercorns with white peppercorns, and the resulting mix of pepper (powder) was very good for steaks. I also used whole peppercorns in my braised beef ribs. When I happened to taste the whole red peppercorn, I knew the difference between black and red pepper and it is readily distinguishable. Red pepper has a very strong character. It is a lot bolder, more punchy — even if the heat is on the same level as black pepper.

The address of Hai Duong Pepper Farm is Hamlet 4, Cua Can, Phu Quoc, Kien Giang, Viet Nam.

Sources

Tour at the Hai Duong Pepper Farm.

The official website of the Hai Duong Pepper Farm.