Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/491350
28 STiR tea & coffee industry international Fairhope History Museum director Donnie Barrett in his 40,000 tree tea garden in Baldwin County, Alabama. Washington, Oregon and California At the Sakuma Brothers 5-acre tea farm in the Skagit Valley, Wash., a selection of tea varietals went into the ground more than 10 years ago. The slightly acidic soil required a generous addition of compost before planting took place and the harsh weather during winter months along with pests and fungus caused the regular loss of plants in the early years. Richard Sakuma described the venture as an R & D project! But his hand-picked white, green and oolong teas sell well and he constantly seeks consumer comments in order to improve his pro- cessing techniques. He is thinking of also grow- ing herbs for blending – lavender, chamomile, and lemon balm - to meet a growing demand for fla- vored teas and tisanes. In Oregon, in the Willamette valley just south of Salem City, Elizabeth Miller and husband Chris Jenkins run Minto Island Growers where half an acre of their organic fruit and vegetable farm is planted with tea. Experimental plantings of tea in the state date back to the mid 1800s when cuttings from South Carolina were introduced but the project was abandoned and the bushes were left to grow wild. The Minto Island plot was developed in the late 1980s by Elizabeth's father Rob, who partnered with agricultural consultant John Vendeland and Steve Smith, founder of both Stash Tea and Tazo Tea, to re-introduce tea to Oregon. They brought in seeds and cuttings from Japan, Taiwan, Hawaii and South Carolina and today five or six varietals (selected from the original 200) are plucked and processed by hand to make green, oolong and black teas. The climate is rainy with mild winters and summers and temperature fluctuations from 15-20 degrees Fahrenheit in winter to summer highs of 100º F. Severe cold is the biggest threat to the plants. Also in Oregon, Josh Chamberlain of J-Tea has 48 baby plants growing at his teahouse in Eugene and plans to make black tea from the harvested leaves. He learned how to grow and process in Taiwan and plans to focus on producing the same sort of high quality whole leaf tea produced there. In California, tea entrepreneur Roy Fong of San Francisco's Imperial Tea Court, has been pre- paring 23 acres of land in the Bay Area for new tea cuttings by working in compost and by grow- ing almonds on 10 acres and grass on the rest to break down the soil and increase the level of or- ganic matter. "We have plants from Taiwan, Japan, India and Hawaii and we're growing cuttings hydropon- ically and the current 300 or so are starting to de- velop," reports Fong. "We're also sprouting some seedlings from seeds sent from China's Yunnan province and currently have about 15 plants from seeds. We plan to import more seeds and cuttings this year," he said. Fong's biggest problem is the climate: "California summers are hot and dry and the low humidity level kills the seedlings even when they are watered daily. We also have a high PH level water source which required a RO filter to be installed to correct the situation." Once the plants mature, Fong's plans to harvest by hand and process the leaves using small equipment import- ed from Taiwan. "We will be making a mixture of teas to learn techniques and determine taste pro- files due to local growing conditions. We will make a decision when we have enough plants for all the tests we want to carry out," he said. Also in Northern California Babette Donald- son grows tea plants for educational purposes on westward facing slopes at 2,700 feet in the Sierra Foothills. As a professional tea writer, presenter and educator, she likes to "to take potted living plants with me when I speak to demonstrate how little of the plant is plucked and how much work is required to make a pound of dry tea." She has land available for a 'more serious crop' and hopes to establish a small operation over the next two years. Mississippi and Louisiana When Hurricane Katrina destroyed Jason Mc- Donald's timber stand in Lincoln County Missis- sippi in 2005, he began to look for an alternative crop and decided that tea, low-growing, resistant to storm damage and sustainable, could be the an- swer. He sought advice from the Mississippi State University Extension Service and hired tea tech- nologist Melican as his consultant. Planting of the first 250 plants on 14 acres took place in October and November 2013. The soil at McDonald's Filoli farm is Loess, a very special soil that is also found in various parts of China and is considered to be the most agri- culturally productive in the world under the right climatic conditions. The pH at Filoli did not need adjusting but large amounts of composted chicken manure have been dug in to compensate for a lack of nitrogen. The sub-tropical climate here is also very suitable: "We have long, hot, humid summers briefly interrupted by short, mild, wet winters. On occasions it can be bitterly cold but in a typical year, the lowest the temperatures ever go is around 20-25 F. We also get a fair amount of rain – on average between 60-80 inches a year – and this is sufficient for tea. However we will also have an irrigation (liquid fertilizer) system that will supple- ment the nutrition and water requirements in case of severe drought," he said. MacDonald's six different tea varietals were sourced from South Carolina where the plants that grow at Charleston Tea Estate were originally brought in from China. A further 60,000 plants will soon go into the ground. The long-term plan