Even though we are isolated on our farm now, it is not at all unpleasant. It is rather a pleasure picking the young growth off 25 year old sinensis bonsais’. We are not conducting tours or going to the gym but putting our focus on tea production. We pick, process, dry and pack about five pounds of tea a day. My old fingers are still holding up as my wife ask me “How long can you keep this up?” I find the fresh bud/two leaves are soft and not too hard on the hands.
When the new growth started I was a bit in a panic mode thinking I would never be able to keep up. Because I am picking every day, I have managed to not let it get away from me. I’ll have to admit it rained a week ago and I enjoyed laying on the couch that afternoon.
Another thing I have started doing this year is not picking a row at a time but skipping around to where the growth is flushed out a bit more so it will not get old before the rest of the row comes in. Also, these low rows are a bit hard on the back bending over so much so I will pick on a low row then skip over to a belly-button high row.
Here is a photo of a green and black batch ready for the dry pen.