Cashews – ស្វាយ ចន្ទី នៅ រតនគីរី

Red cashew fruit from an orchard in northeast cambodia

Red cashew fruit from an orchard in northeast cambodia

Cashew fruit in Ratanakiri, Cambodia. The fruit tastes pretty astringent. I remember liking it and eating it often as a kid, but now that my tast buds have developed, I’m not a big fan. The actual cashew is that seed that’s hanging down below the fruit.

In a way, cashews have transformed the lives of the indigenous highland minorities. It’s caused their economic development to skyrocket. Most minority families will plant a cashew orchard to supplement their regular subsistence rice planting.

For the first time, the indigenous minorities have a cash crop to sell; suddenly they have money, to buy motorcycles, chain saws, tin roofs, and build larger houses. Suddenly they can become wealthy.

It’s the tail end of cashew season right now. All over the province you can see villagers with big bags of cashews on their motorcycles, taking them to the market to sell. Trucks laden with tons of them rumble dustily through the town on their way to Vietnam.

Please feel free to share my images—they are meant to be seen! Use them for your non-profit, on your blog, for fun and the like, but please link to www.ethancrowley.com and give credit to Ethan Crowley. All of my images are Creative Commons, Non-Commercial

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Comments

  • Cath Kenny May 27, 2013 Reply

    Every day’s a school day, as they say in Ireland! Love your photos, and your sharing policy! Will be posting and crediting you forthwith! A lot of my ex- HK school friends will enjoy the familiar SE Asia scenes.

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