Our tea factory is going at full speed now. We work on tea most all the time. Besides picking bushels of fresh green leaves daily and processing, we have to fill and seal the mylar bags, and pack 6 oz loose leaf bags and make our little boxes of individual cup size tea bags. We can barely keep our sales packages in stock. We are going almost “hand to mouth” by finishing a batch of green or black then putting this right in a bag and some one will buy all of them tomorrow. It certainly is fresh!
Also eating our time is our tea tours of the farm. We have a family group every day. They are mostly tourist from all over the USA. We greet them, serve them a cup of tea, give them a complete class on tea plant horticulture and tea craft, making tea from the leaves. We show what ever tea we are making at the time. Then we get on the golf cart and ride through the tea fields and stop to see different pruning and growing techniques. I then offer folks a free bare rooted tea plant. This cost $10 per person but the guests are quite pleased with the tours and are overly complementary.
Let me again remind our guest that we only take cash or checks. No plastic or as someone tried to pay me in bitcoin. Bring another ten dollars because you will want to buy some tea after the tour. Dogs on leash are ok, children are free and usually are not interested in tea. We have lots of peacocks which people are amused. We are a farm so there are always bugs after your blood and there is a bit of bird manure around the grounds. Folks do not need to wear mask as we are outside and are not close. Tours are an hour but if guest need to use our restrooms, they are available. Our tours start right by our house and not out in the fields so when you arrive, pull right up to our house, with several signs directing and blow your horn. It is best if you reserve a spot as far ahead as you can because I am getting booked up every day and may not have a timeslot that fits your vacation schedule.
We lost our chairs in the last hurricane so can not accommodate bus tours, school groups or garden clubs all at once. Four can be seated on our golf cart, otherwise we walk out to the tea fields.
I had some photos I was going to post but my computer is being fussy. Y’all come see us!
Donnie Barrett