Off Highway 33, the only paved highway connecting Cambodia’s sleepy beach towns of Kampot and Kep, sits a small, red road marked by a faded signpost that reads Welcome to Peper Farm. My tuk-tuk driver misses the road entirely the first time around, and we swing across the barren highway to retrace our steps. The air is stagnant in the 98-degree heat. It hardly seems like the road leading to one of Cambodia’s most prized products: Kampot pepper.