Donja Lokosnica is most beautiful in the fall: A red pepper "empire" in southern Serbia

This village near Leskovac has been made famous by the hardworking farmers who devoted their lives to growing and drying a special variety of red pepper that thrives only on their ancestral land

Come the fall, there are few families in Serbia who will not start preparing peppers for the winter.

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Chopped, dried, made into ajvar, pickled... there are so many specialties involving this vegetable in Serbian, but only one address that can be called "an empire of peppers" - Donja Lokosnica.

Although there fewer than 1,000 inhabitants in the village, Donja Lokosnica is known not only throughout Serbia, but also in the world for its dried red peppers.

An indigenous variety of this vegetable thrives only in Donja Lokosnica, which already at the end of summer becomes a "red village" because of the rows of drying peppers everywhere.

According to the farmers, 200 to 220 peppers are needed to create one row, depending on the size.

"We are born with a needle for stringing peppers in our hands," they say jokingly.

And they are proud, both of their Donja Lokosnica, and of the red treasure that is so easy to grow here.

Photo: Ivan Strahinic

(Ona.rs)