A promise made in the Shiding bitter tea tree garden
In Shiding, New Taipei City, there is a contract-farming tea garden that is our hope.
One story has always touched our hearts. A few years ago, a television station interviewed Cha Tzu Tang, and besides interviewing us, they also went together to a bitter tea (Camellia) tree garden in Shiding to interview an old farmer; a few years later, we received a phone call from the son of that old farmer in the Shiding bitter tea tree garden, telling us that his father had passed away, and hoping we could provide them with the video of that report at the time, so it could be played at his father's farewell ceremony. In their memory, their father was a man of few words who had always quietly given of himself, farming his whole life, and his proudest moment was the one shown in that television report. They could not forget the smile on their father's face when he saw his own image appear on television.
It turns out that being seen is such an important thing. In Taiwan, China, there are many people quietly hidden among the crowd, inheriting traditions, figures who hold fast, always single-mindedly devoted to creating for the land, holding reverence for time and the land. Even if they are plain and unseen, as long as we feel and sense with a sincere heart, we can all see the light naturally radiating from them.
Therefore, having a farm in Shiding became a promise we made to ourselves. In the past, Shiding had three treasures: the elderly, Beauty Tea (Oriental Beauty tea), and bitter tea oil; the elderly and Beauty Tea still exist, but the bitter tea oil industry has gradually declined. Last year we visited bitter tea tree gardens all over Taiwan, and finally we found one located in Shiding. This is an old garden where bitter tea trees and tea plants grow intermingled, nestled against the mountain terrain, wrapped in drifting clouds and mist, with the sturdy bitter tea trees surrounding the tea garden, possessing a quiet strength and a harmonious beauty.
However, old bitter tea tree gardens generally have a problem nowadays: the trees are too tall, making it inconvenient to harvest the higher parts, and since the farmers are older, harvesting is also dangerous. It is not that the taller and bigger the tree, the greater the yield; if the bitter tea seeds at the top are not properly harvested and handled, it will affect the growth of the entire bitter tea tree. Therefore, in the Shiding bitter tea tree garden, our primary goal is the "old tree dwarfing and pruning plan." Dwarfing and renovating old trees is a major undertaking, requiring three to four years to gradually dwarf them. Pruning is an art; if pruning is done well, the annual yield does not decrease but instead increases.
We are practicing how to get along with each bitter tea tree according to its individual character, listening to the voice from the land. We have always believed that when the day comes when the bitter tea seeds in the bitter tea tree garden bloom in profusion, it will absolutely be the best tribute we offer to the land and the old farmers.
