I am amazed that I have a tea bush flowering in the August heat.  They usually flower in mid winter, a bit before Christmas.  It is refreshing to see these flowers come out as it reminds me of cooler weather.  It is not cool now!  What goes on in a mind of a tea bush, I guess I will never know.

We are quite busy on the tea farm making batches of tea.  We are making a green tea one week, picking three of four days in a row.  Finish it’s processing and the next week we will make black tea using the same picking – processing pattern.  We like to do little batches at a time so we will not be overwhelmed.  A couple bushels of processed leaves will quickly dry in our dry pen with the extreme heat we are having, which now seems the norm.  It is serious business picking in the fields when it is so hot.  You have to take all the measures for safety.  This includes drinking lots of water, some salty, lots of sun screen, long pants and sleeves, big wet hat and lots of bug repellant for the ants and deer ticks.

We are doing lots of tea farm tours now.  We are booked up now to the second week of September.  When visitors come to the Gulf Coast, they are expecting it to be hot and seem to endure it well.  We have met some really nice and interesting people.  Folks who go to the trouble to find us and come visit are usually real tea connoisseurs.  They will drink a wide variety of different teas and enjoy in in many ways but they seldom know where it comes from and how its made.  Their mouths will drop open when I say “all the teas come from the same plant…”  I go on to qualify that how the different styles of teas are processed.  I also will show them an assamica plant and say how it is used.

Tours are by reservation, cost $20 per person in cash.  We sell loose leaf and teabag teas in green or black.  These are traditional Chinese styles with no flavoring or additives.  Leaves are sun dried and teabags are heat sealed.  We don’t have many insects trying to bite you now and I mostly keep our guests out of the sun.  Come see us, you will love the tour!

Donnie Barrett

Fairhope Tea Farm