Location, location, location. Grown on narrow ledges, Mr. Lin’s farm on the mountain top is pristinely full of organic matter, like bamboo husks, weeds to be hand pulled, wild flowers. The wind put through is quite strong, a little known locational advantage against bugs. Mountain streams trickle down. Iron rich soil is another natural environmental factor for his superior crops. Still too young for harvest, the leaflets will need to grow another 2 weeks.
I rarely post any photos of myself but my staff complain. ‘How will customers know you were there?’
If not me, who would be crazy enough? But anyway, here it is. With the fabulous Golden Guanyin tea bushes ( fertilized by duck poop? no, cow dung, said Mr. Lin. Even better flavor!).
Shang Dong peak, Mr. Lin’s bio organic farm growing Golden Guanyin and other varietals
No one appreciates my fowl photos, but what is farm life without them milling around under your feet all day?
Late night at the farm. Suddenly, everyone realized that what I said was true- you don’t actually get to buy property in China, it’s called ‘leasing’ in the rest of the world. However, one is told by the Communist government that one is purchasing, so down payment, mortgage, renovations etc are all yours to pay. Then the government gets to repossess it by year 50/60/70. So how is that ownership?
The more everyone thought about it, the worst the mood. Out came the Mal Tai, the rice wine, the domestic red table wine, and the snake soup. A round of cigarettes later and everyone is less depressed about being Chinese.
There’s a lot of idle time at the farm when it’s not peak season yet. Here at Anxi, peak harvest and production season won’t really start for another 2 weeks, waiting for the leaves to grow a bit more mature. There’s a lot of standing around， sitting and drinking tea and smoking and shooting the breeze. Often neighbors will drop in and sit and not say a word. Mr. Lin, formerly the village doctor, is attempting to do the all natural farm, including using no chemical fertilizers. His Red Guanyin and Golden Robe saw their first appearance in the US with us last year. This year, we hope to ask him to tweak and custom make those teas for us a bit， adjusting fire levels and depth.
Here at 赤石 Red Rock Village where a Tieguanyin was first discovered by a fellow villager in the early 1700s， every family is related and everyone makes tea.