Every year we have small memorial service where we ceremonially remove the scare crow from the tea field and retire him to be dissembled, only to be rebuilt in a slightly different form and returned next year. This years funeral looked more like a ride to the barn. I will usually put the scarecrow out when I finish the harvest for the year and remove him at first flush. I was late on both of those occasions this year but since it is just my wife and I we pretty much entertain ourselves down on the farm. I thought this might one day be an occasion with bands and food trucks but that never happened.
We are picking tea and making tea every day. Our production is going wide open and we are making “hay when the sun shines.” We started making green tea and have about 60 pounds of green put up and now we are making a batch of black tea, picking 3-4 bushels of leaf, every day. We make small batches like this at a time to not take too much time and overwhelm our floor space. I aim for about 300 pounds a year as this is what it takes for me to sell tea bags to guests and sell larger bags to regular customers, all in my driveway. Half of our tea goes to regular customers.
We are doing 1:00 tea tours almost every day. It is good timing after a tour I can go out and pluck leaf, wither it over night, roll in the morning and greet tea guests at 1:00. This pace will slow down when it starts to get really hot but its going good now.
We are in yellow fly season. These are biting flies that are only here for a month in late spring. I tell guests to wear long pants and socks and many say “we came to the beach and did not bring long pants and socks.” Then a light spray of Off will take care of it.
When you come on a tea farm tour bring cash!
Thank you all who have sent notes saying how much they have enjoyed my tea book. My first response is “Well, its not THAT good.” but I do appreciate the nice comments.
Donnie Barrett