Unprocessed food stuffs: mysteries revealed!

Something that has been an ongoing preoccupation/interest to me is the FOOD here. Or, more precisely, the UNPROCESSED food-stuffs. I mean, we never get to see what our food looks like before it arrives pre-packaged on our grocery store shelves: pre-cooked beans, corn, and peas are to us available in tins, ready-to-eat; vanilla comes in liquid-form in a pretty little bottle, ready to be used in various baking recipies; our coffee is already roasted and ground; our rice shucked and bagged-- even "instant" if we so desire. But what did these products look like BEFORE all of the processing, I have often wondered? Does anyone even KNOW how pineapples and papyas grow (hanging from trees? on a vine on the ground, like a pumpkin?); or what black pepper looks like before it is conveniently ground and sold in pepper-shakers? Well, these and many more such queries were answered for me when I visited a local farm/agro-forestry school on the outskirts of Nueav guinea, called "La Esperansita" (roughly "the little hope"). I shall let the pictures speak for themselves.

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