Welcome to our year with tea
Reflections on February....Awakening at our Tea Houses
As the light returns we captured this image at our Shatwell Farm Tea House. This beautiful glow perfectly reflecting many of our visitors feelings this month - the desire for the light but the desire to also stay wrapped up warm & cosy against the cold February air. This time of year continues to test our patience - it is so easy to wish the darker days away but perhaps more rewarding to 'sit' in the moment if we can - take the time to breathe - appreciate our February landscape and of course drink tea. Quiet tea moments offer us the chance to gently awaken and feel gratitude for the season.
- Grey February skies with the light breaking through the cracks over the silo in this beautiful part of the world - a feeling of change in the air
- An hour or so making a small plant arrangement in the Shatwell Tea House - soon Spring will be upon us and there will be an explosion of green and new life - taking time to savour this moment & reflect the outside inside can offer some beautiful gentle reflection.
- Speaking of simple acts and gentle reflection the last photo here shows Jenny behind the counter brewing up some restorative leaves for our visitors.
Out & About
.Lunar New Year at the Museum of East Asian Art - MEAA
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Lunar New Year background from the MEAA
Lunar New Year around the world from the MEAA
Lunar New Year crafts & traditions [from the MEAA]
The Chinese Zodiac [image from the MEAA]
Reflections on February....in the tea fields
As part of our year with tea project we are asking many of our partners around the world to share what activities they undertaken each month - an insight into the work that goes on in tea all year round - and of course a window into what tea everyone is drinking! Here is our spotlight on February from India to China & beyond.
February with tea friends in the Nilgiri Hills Southern India
From our partner Murali : In February we have spent time working on the tea plant pruning and farm cleaning. Here are a couple of photos of pruned tea plants.
We manually apply lime coating to the pruned plants to clear off moss covered branches, ward off any pests and improve growth. We prune only portion of the farm in order to not affect tea production.
By next year, these plants will be back to full growth.
February with tea friends in the Darjeeling Hills Northern India
From our partner Husna : As the harvest season ends in November, and the factory falls silent after 9 months of hard work we spend the winter months including February cleaning, painting and polishing each machine so we can start the next season all sparkly new. We are just a few days away from our first harvest of 2024.....enjoy these photographs of the calm before the storm ....in a tea cup! Very soon - this is the space that will embrace the delicate Spring leaves our tea pickers will gather from the fields, to bring you India's finest teas.
Seeking the blessings of the tea gods : At the start of each season, right at the end of Feb/1st of March we perform a little ritual in the tea fields and in the tea factory - seeking the blessings of the tea and the weather gods. The elephant-headed Ganesha is known as the Lord of Good Beginnings, and is also the remover of obstacles, so he is always worshipped at the start of any new beginning. So we select a field that receives the very first rays of the sun, and invoke his blessings.
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This year, we gathered in Section 1E of our Glenburn division, and prayed for good weather, an abundant crop as well as good health and prosperity for our community of tea workers. Our priest requested Parithakur from Bara Gaon village to pluck the very first tea leaves. After her symbolic picking, the rest of our plucking gang commenced our first harvest of the new season. This year we had hotel guests join into the puja, and it was a beautiful morning with perfect weather too signifying an auspicious new beginning. Next we moved to the factory where we invoked the blessings of Lord Vishwakarma - the divine architect and craftsmen, the designer of the Universe, also associated with technology and innovation, and commonly known as the God of Tools and Work. We invoked him to bless all our machines, and then the factory sprang into life again with the first harvest of 2024
Want to try the tea? You can explore here
February with tea friends : China Myanmar Border
February for our tea friends in Ujitawara Japan
February for our tea friends in Kyoto Japan
From our partner Tokuya : We are now at the end of winter. It rains a lot this year at home. I have been shipping products and filming for YouTube. We undertake the activities of planting / maintenance / tea making & pulling grass.
February for our tea friends in South Korea
February with tea friends ; Shire Highlands Malawi
February with tea friends in Adams peak Sri Lanka
From our partners Buddhika : February has seen us experience quite a strange and unpredictable drought. It is usually quite dry but this year the level of rainfall is exceptionally low. This does mean that the harvest was less than usual but the quality has gone up. The reason for this is that the leaf contains water - when there is a drought the water content is less because evaporation is high. The chemical compounds in the leaf are therefore at a higher concentration so when you manufacture the fresh leaf you get superb quality because the flavour compounds are more concentrated.
Share them with us - we would love to hear from you.
