Growing Tea, Knowing Tea

Plucking in the Westholme Tea Garden

Spring marks the beginning of tea harvest season all around the world, including right here in our little Valley. Often, we closely associate the transition into Autumn with harvest time. But for tea, the time is now, and our team has been busy plucking the first flush of tender new leaves and buds in the Westholme Tea Garden. Of course, when we refer to tea, we mean the one and only tea plant: Camellia sinensis.

Spring harvested teas are some of the most prized in the world. Although harvests in most tea regions will continue into the height of summer, spring teas are unique and generally synonymous with superior quality. There is a short, few-day harvest window in which the first two leaves and a bud can be picked. Held within this first new growth of spring is an experience of distinct flavours, which the tea plant develops throughout the restful winter season.

We patiently wait until the tea leaves presents certain characteristics that align with the types of tea (blacks, greens, whites) we hope to produce. For certain types of teas, the stage at which the leaf should be plucked is so precise that if the harvest window is missed, the farmers would have to wait for the next season to produce that type of tea. As soon as the leaf is picked, the process of tea making begins. As we spend more time in the tea garden, sporting sun hats and satchels, our perspectives of tea are shifting and expanding. At this time of year, we also receive spring harvested teas from around the world: Darjeeling from India, Matcha from Japan, Black teas from China. Our team gets to taste teas harvested by hands on the other side of the world, and then taste teas harvested by our own hands here. If the leaves are destined to be a white tea, we may be tasting our tea within hours after harvest. We can see that around the world, tea is crafted from the same plant matter yet remains a unique expression of the land upon which it is rooted. From this perspective, tea is a medium to view the lines of connection that exist in the world - like contour lines across time and space. We are not just growing tea, but a deeper reverence for the traditions of tea and cycles of nature that connect us to the landscape and to each other.

Alicia Fall is an employee at Westholme Tea Company, farmer, and ceremonialist in the Cowichan Valley