Rice

This photo was taken at the small but perfectly formed 240 hotel and restaurant on street 240 in PhnomPenh. The green stuff growing in the middle of the table is rice.Obviously this is not how rice usually grows but symbolises what is a huge part of the Cambodian culture.
Vast ares of Cambodia are turned over to rice growing and many people spend many hours of their lives manging the rice.It appears to me to be a hugely labour intensive crop to grow. Most Cambodian people I know here have a least a small rice field to supply their family needs for the year as well as having a job in healthcare or education.We are in the middle of the dry season now and most of the rice has been harvested. it is spread oot on polythene sheets to dry along the side of the roads. Soon we will see people tossing it in the air and catching the heavier bits(the grains I think) in a basket whilst the dust blows away. Then it will all be packed up in big sacks and the roads will be full of lorries and tractors transporting it from A to B to C.Big stacks will be built out of the straw that's left over to feed the cattle.In May it will start to rain again and the paddy fields will fill up with water . That's when the rice for the next year is sown again by hand and the countryside becomes brilliant green againEventually it is thinned out again by hand and eventually harvested. It really is the most delicious rice I have ever eaten