If you’re a foodie like me then you’ll find it as hard as I do to drive past Terre Exotique in Rochecorbon, one of the Vouvray villages just after Tours going east.
Firstly, it’s a really beautiful house, and secondly, inside is a collection of 600 peppers and spices from all over the world.
Terre Exotique is a pretty impressive place at the best of times.
This weekend was the International Pepper Festival. A chance to learn all about the origins of some of the peppers they stock, hear the stories of the people behind them, attend a cookery demonstration, taste a range of peppers, spices, oils, cornichons, vinegars, wines and much more.
We attended a presentation about the pepper from Likouala. This pepper grows on vines that cling on to the upper reaches of tall trees and the local Baka people (an ethnic minority of hunter gatherers that is often marginalised from society and discriminated against) scale the trees to harvest the pepper.
The berries are removed from the stems and then boiled for 2 minutes before being dried in the sunshine for 2 to 3 days. They are then sorted and are packed ready to head to France.
The income from this goes towards providing education for Baka children in the region and so far there are 50 ‘educational posts’ in and around Likouala, a remote area where the nearest school in the past would have been 100km away.
I can highly recommend a visit to Terre Exotique if you’re into food and want to discover a local gem that supplies many of the top Michelin restaurants in France.
