A new tea garden is born

What started off as a construction project for a new tea factory a few months ago has taken a new twist in the last weeks. Thanks to goodwill, a long-term vision and a bit of government regulation, a new tea garden is taking shape in our own backyard. Here’s a first picture instalment in a new series of articles chronicling the activities surrounding this new venture as we slowly move towards the goal of sampling the first cups made from our backyard bushes. Make yourselves comfortable as the ride will take a good two years to reach that step!

A few months ago, the piece of land next to our house and factory compound was just a haven for many living representatives of the reptile class — and very cute, colourful ones, might I add. No one laid foot on that parcel of land since no one could distinguish properly where solid ground was to be found underneath the intricate network of dense ground vegetation that covered the area. It appeared quite un-inviting as it seemed it would engulf any biped wishing to venture that way — at least it did to me. When I first visited the house I now live in a few years ago, I was told this field once was an Osmanthus tree grove that was planted by the grandfather. The tiny fragrant flowers these trees produced were harvested to naturally scent tea. That was the family’s trade and speciality back then. It still is now, but other tea trade skills have now augmented the family’s offerings. Today, I will not explain why those flower trees are no longer there and keep the story for another time. But, I will nonetheless fuel your sensory imagination and confirm that this must have been idyllic to live in a house surrounded by fragrant flower trees like this — a small portion of this Osmanthus grove still subsists in the backyard of a distant family neighbour not far away from us and are the main feature of the restaurant he runs. The trees are now mature and serve as a canopy to an outside tea garden where one can go and enjoy tea and snacks shaded by the Osmanthus trees. Bus loads of tourists flock to come and enjoy this unique sight and atmosphere.

Back to our yard. It was the plan for a while to build a new tea factory. A new building with more space would allow more efficient machinery to be put in place and more room would make work more pleasant for everybody. Construction plans were elaborated, builders were summoned for quotes and bankers visited for financing. Remained the administrative requirement of receiving the required permits from the respective authorities. Everything seemed to be running its course until a reply came back from the building permit office. The permit was not approved since we were making use of agricultural land for other purposes than agriculture. After checking the regulations, we found out that it was not a categoric no for erecting buildings on agricultural land. Only a certain percentage of the total surface could be used for other purposes than agriculture as long as we could prove that the remaining surface was in fact used for agricultural purposes… This meant that, not only did we need to revise the building plans but we also needed to start planting something in the ground quickly for inspectors to come and validate our conformity to the rules and hope for a revised position on the building plans.

It was not a big issue to re-position the building on a smaller portion of the plot. What seemed to be the aggravating part was to have to become a farmer as well as being a tea producer (yes, these are two separate activities contrary to what most people think). Everyone here had enough on their plate right now. Discussions with tea grower friends made us realize that tea, obviously, was the right choice of crop to grow and the easiest to care for. Remained the issue of responsibility for the care of the plantation. And this is where your humble servant makes his entry — I volunteered for the job. Chuckles of mild mockery with a good part of relief greeted my offer which was immediately accepted by the other family members. I guess this will be my initiation test after-all. I can live with that since I see it as a god-given opportunity to learn about tea at the “root level” and ultimately earn my place in this family. Obviously, I am being a bit facetious about being accepted by my in-laws. It would be more true to say that I wish to do my part and express my gratitude whilst being able to offer my modest contribution to the family efforts. And yes, there is a sprinkling of idealism in my enthusiasm, but I remain convinced that this is still a healthy attitude to have in life, especially at my age.

So, from now on, you will have to pardon my dirty finger nails, and my tardiness in updating this blog from time to time. In the next 2 years it will take until we can put our lips to a cup of resulting beverage (I dare not call it tea at this stage), my life will now be governed by growing tea trees that require my timely and daily care. And yes, you will have to excuse my periodical pictures and reports on the progress of my field work, I now feel a giddy responsibility towards my little bushes like proud new parents are towards their newborn siblings.

This being said, I am hearing you ask what have we finally decided to plant? We have chosen to concentrate on 2 cultivars: TRES-18 Red Jade and TRES-12 Jin Xuan. Since the plan is to focus on black tea production and experimentation, these 2 cultivars are best suited for the job and have a good track record in the growing environment of the Baguashan.

Needless to say, this is all very exciting to me! As I spend hours hand watering my little shrubs everyday my mind wanders thinking of devious plans to concoct new styles of black tea. And, like fallen leaders of a bygone era, I also “have a dream”: to transform local taiwanese cultivars according to techniques used to make Darjeeling tea… What a beautiful twist in conjecture this would be for a Darjeeling-drinking-half-Brit. now living in Taiwan. Based on my discussions with many leading local authorities in tea cultivation, no one seems to have ever tried. Maybe there’s some good reasons for that, we’ll eventually find out, I guess. For now, I’ll keep contemplating the dream until reality catches up. At least it gives me something to look forward to while I hold the hose.

To be continued.