Week 2

A happy moment that I had during this week was while I was cutting down grass in the hanger plot (this is one of their two tea fields aka, plots at Minto). I was listening to music as I usually do while doing the farm work while cutting out and uprooting grass with a sharp whacking blade that they gave me. The sun was out and I was working up a sweat. Somehow, Spotify directed me to electronic dance music (edm). So, I spent an hour, angrily uprooting and whacking grass with a sharp tool whilst listening to edm and working up a sweat. It felt quite good. It made me happy in the moment and afterwards because it was a fun combination and was low-key therapeutic.

So far, I have learned a lot about tea. I have learned the differences in the ways that green, white, and black tea are processed. White tea is the easiest and most simple tea to produce because after picking, you simply have to air dry it. Green tea is a little more difficult because you have to immediately dehydrate it in an oven specifically designed for tea. Black tea is the most labor intensive tea to produce because the tea leaves must be rolled for the longest so that the cell walls can be broken down and cells inside the leaves can oxidize. After rolling, black tea must then be dried and then heated in the oven. Oolong is apparently the most difficult tea to create because it is somewhere in between a green and black tea. It is difficult to get it just right rather than just making a green or black tea on accident due to processing mistakes or difficulties. At Minto, they make white, green, and black tea for selling. They used to produce oolong but have stopped as it is too time consuming and labor intensive.

In terms of my goals from week 1, I am definitely learning a lot more about tea! I have not been hesitant to ask questions. Because of this, I am learning a lot about how tea is processed and not only this, but how it is grown. Also, Kacie and Gavin (the two main people at Minto that I have been working with) are very knowledgable about tea in general, not just the tea at the farm. Gavin worked at a tea farm in Japan for the last 3 years before working at Minto and this week I talked with him for a bit about teas in Japan, how they are different from the U.S., matcha, and how tea farms are run there.

I don't have any questions as of right now because whenever I think of a question I ask it. My questions always get answered because I am working with very knowledgable people!

                                                                                       Photos from Tuesday:

I picked in a new field that they call the 'mother' plot. This plot was much harder to pick from than what I picked the previous week (in the 'hanger' plot) because the plants were taller than me and much more sporadic in their placement. I had to use a stool to pick from the tops of some of these plants.

Me + tea plants in the mother plot (they are taller than me). I had to wear rain gear because the tea plants were wet from a morning rain and I had to wade through them in order to pick the tea leaves.

Me picking tea in the mother plot on a stool

Photos from Wednesday:

Tea leaves that we picked being dried for white tea in the processing room (photo taken Wednesday)

The same tea leaves above but two days later! They are beginning to oxidize and dry out here (photo taken Friday)

Blackberry plants encroaching on the hanger plot. I spent a large portion of my day on Wednesday whacking down grass, pulling weeds, and cutting blackberry plants from this tea field.