It’s been a long time since we’ve blogged about tea. The field has been growing exceedingly well, particular in the wet wet weather which stayed wet until mid-April this year. Tea loves rain! Our February 22 harvest, a full-bodied oolong, was announced on facebook and did well. The May 1 harvest experienced difficult conditions, surprisingly hot and dry, which sun-cooked the leaves even before processing. More recently, we did a harvest on May 21 which was made into two kinds of green tea: classic Chinese green, and my attempt at a Japanese green. The Chinese turned out very good. For the Japanese, we don’t have one of those heated tables that traditional rolling is done on, so i improvised. The result is promising – it does taste like sencha – but probably not yet good enough to sell. You can try some if you come by the farm.
Recent intern Alisha, picking leaves for the May 21 harvest made into green tea.
After the major pruning of 5/25, all the older plants are now hedges
Some young tea plants, freshly planted up the hillside. Recent intern Comus helped with much of the planting.
View of the lower field which is nearly all grown in, and now pruned into hedges
Note the pruning makes a lot of stick-ends, each of which should sprout multiple leaves next time, all at the same height for abundant and easy harvesting