Pinehurst Tea Garden

10/22/2026

The morning shadows are really interesting this time of year, I guess from the position of the Sun and how the land lays. I was taking this photo to show the cover crop coming up from the last rain but had a shift in gears.
I sort of named my place after the Pinehurst Tea Planation that once was outside of Summerville South Carolina which was built by a Dr. Shepard in 1888. I came across his work through a small book he wrote for the US Department Of Agriculture published in 1899 called Tea Culture: The Experiment in South Carolina. Very interesting with plenty of information and can be found here: https://archive.org/details/teacultureexperi61shep/page/n1/mode/2up
Also my place is located just East of Pinehurst North Carolina, which was begun by Mr. James Tufts in 1895. James Tuft’s fortune was from a silver plating technique and the products he made such as tea sets. Both Summerville SC and Pinehurst NC were largely areas for the wealthy of that time as a Winter retreat and to come for the benefits of the healthy climates.
The photo shows to a degree that the tea is literally growing on a pine hill. The word ‘hurst’ comes from the Old English word ‘hyrst’, meaning a wooded hill or a sandbank. This whole area is known as ‘The Sandhills’, and there is plenty of sand around. This particular hill was created I suppose as the creek which is nearby slowly migrated. It is an ancient creek bank I guess. Plenty of big, old trees.
I always wanted to live in rolling country having been from the flatlands of Eastern NC, and I got my wish though I did not know I would be growing any tea.

09/25/2026

My tea season is about over as far as harvesting and processing it. Now to move on to cleaning up a bit and planting some sort of cover crop.
About to finish up the wood burning wok which will be used for roasting Green Tea. I use a simple propane heated wok now, and have real good results.
Most producers here in the US go the route of boiling or steaming the tea leaves to stop the oxidation of the fresh tea leaves called Kill-green. The flavor is slightly different than roasting, and easier. With the extreme heat it is easy to scorch the tender buds and leaf while roasting and it takes a bit of extra time.
This is a fairly long video below from Mei Leaf, but very well done. It shows the three roasting processes which is what I do, and really gives some good information on temperatures which most people leave out in such videos. I never get up to 300 degrees centigrade, but have come close. That is really hot. They are also roasting afterwards using charcoal for extra drying, which I would like to try someday.
Sit back and enjoy this as it shows the place in China the first tea plants by man were supposedly planted. Also this video shows that the Chinese people are just like us, trying to make our ways through life.

The video is about my pilgrimage to Sichuan to learn about the FIRS...

09/07/2026

I don’t know how many of you just go on the internet and find interesting scientific papers written on Camellia sinensis. I read one the other day that broke down developing a specific flavor for tea as being achieved by just referring to Harvest, or pre-harvest and post-harvest. Pre-harvest being everything up to the actual plucking and post-harvest being everything from the processing and storage.
Under both the pre-harvest and post-harvest there being a multitude of factors as one can imagine. All of these factors affecting the taste which makes duplication quite hard, at least to my thinking.
So much is unseen because it takes place in the actual soil with the Symbiotic relationships of the Camellia sinensis and the surrounding plants along with the rest of the soil web of fungus and bacteria. So much of this processes nitrogen from the air and feeds not only each other but also the tea plant which in turn has flushes of growth that is harvested and then processed to produce the tea a person drinks. From what I can understand the L-Theanine that is a major advantage in the healthy part of the cup of tea is produced in the roots of the Camellia sinensis during this symbiotic process of nitrification.
Just inter-cropping legumes such as soy beans or ground covers of clover and vetch could substitute the nitrogen needed instead of commercial nitrogen, growing the product while eliminating a major water pollutant especially on mountainside production. It is quite a complex process involving nitrogen fixation and then nitrification. Of course this would involve a whole new look at spacing, somewhat slower growth of flushes and other factors in modern tea cultivation. There would just be a smaller quantity of available tea. But cost of production might be reduced through less fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides. And possibly a better tasting tea.
These plants were enjoying two days of thunderstorms after several weeks/months of very high heat.

07/25/2026

Cleaning up an area where a bunch of one gallon plants that had not been moved for quite a while I came across these particular examples of what the root system of a Camellia sinensis does for the health of the plant. Tea plants are a bit different from the other camellias in the fact of how the roots operate. It is most likely a species thing, as Camellia sinensis will send up sprouts or stems at times, while the Japonica and Sasanqua Camellias don’t normally. Throw some sand around the base and one will normally get new sprouts. ‘The Classic Of Tea’ by Lu Yu speaks of that.
These particular plants were root bound and had even sent tap roots through the woven nursery ground cloth, which normally prevents that sort of thing. Roots are going to do their thing and want to grow. The photos show the natural path these plants went confined in their small containers. Note (photo of root on brick) how the feeder root plus root hairs came out of a root that had grown into the side of the pot.
The other photo of the roots and root hairs show what one wants. They are what not only feed the plant but also exchange sugars beneficial for everything such as the bacteria and fungi involved with the Soil Food-Webb. That includes people who enjoy the taste of tea, and just breathing in general. It is complex. The scientist types cannot even come up with a correct spelling name for it. Seriously, the whole process is one of those "how it actually works" mysteries in life....
The photo with the container and seedlings that came up after falling into a pot is there to show it germinated lying right on top of the ground, then sent roots straight down. Some growers germinate their seeds that way by lying them on top of the soil mix. This particular example had a bit of naturally falling leaf litter on the seed which I had removed to better show the actual seed. This would have been one of last year’s Fall seed germinating and growing this year. Even under drought conditions one can see they grew. Tea plants are pretty drought tolerant.

07/13/2026

Tea has a lot of things going for it, the type, the processing, the appearance of it, the aroma of a brewed cup, the methods of brewing, aging, the water, even the utensils. Lu Yu wrote of these things almost thirteen hundred years ago. But by far the ultimate property is taste. And that is subjective.
As someone who grows a bit of tea I am interested in all the above, but being somewhat skilled at horticulture and that from basically trial and error over time, the actual plant and how it grows is what concerns me most of all. I can drink a cup or two of a tea and think it is really great yet the next day completely forget about what it had tasted like.
I believe what goes on to affect the tea the very most goes on under the ground out of sight. Below is an article that was on the internet that caused the following experiment that for me started not quite a year ago. The photos show five hills or plots of ten seed each I just directly planted and now basically a year later.
Some of the seed germinated and grew, some died, some were pulled up or stepped on by three horses that got out and ended up at my place (that is a whole story in itself). I don’t think I ever even watered them except for the day I planted them, though I did plant a cover crop around them which is why the horses ended up there. It is hard to tell but there are twenty-five seedlings that survived almost the year.
The article has some good thoughts on the possible future of tea and agriculture in general and I hopefully will write more about that later.
https://www.the-tea-crane.com/blog/seed-cultivar-tea-garden-case-study/?srsltid=AfmBOoqoQcquNDbDVCMj9hpgStRzl58f90xTaikZBgEXCrBe6GksUz8h

06/27/2026

Have been working with cover crops over the years to help with the soil nutrition; Camellia sinensis is not a standard crop since technically it would be considered a forest tree. I still don't know whether to call it permaculture, eco-gardening, agroforestry or what.
Anyway in one area the rows are fairly wide and soil quality is very poor So this year used kale, clover, and some rye. The insects really got into the kale eating away and have gone out to cut it all down a couple of times but always see some dragon flies sitting around so I leave it. There are all kinds of insects in it, and they bring in the lizards, frogs, snakes and most likely birds.
Sitting out there in the late part of the day the number of birds chirping away is incredible. Takes one mind off all the problems of the World.

Biodiversity loss is not always immediately visible.

Sometimes it appears gradually through quieter ecosystems, fewer pollinators, and landscapes that feel less alive than they once did.

Healthy ecosystems depend on relationships between soil, plants, insects, birds, water, and people. Regenerative organic agriculture works to rebuild those relationships over time through practices that support biodiversity both above and below the soil.

🌎 What changes in nature have you noticed over your lifetime?

06/09/2026

Guess it is snake week in the Tea Garden. Just wanted to post and say I did not dispatch this one. Believe it is what is called a Red- Bellied Water Snake.
Harmless other than making the heart race a bit as they normally are suddenly walked up on, are very fast with a lot of thrashing about, and they are not small in size. Their presence will slow down the tea picking for awhile. In fact for the faint of heart it ends the tea picking for the day, maybe even the rest of the season.
Of course nothing says Yě Fàng Chá better than a couple of snakes lying around.

06/07/2026

Have been slowly building a wood burning, tea frying oven along the lines of those of old China and this was a series of photos over three days that sort of have a convergence about it all. Suppose it revolves around the colors. Also has to do with the heat of the last couple of days as it has been very hot.
The tea was some picked with some larger leaves more than usual for processing as White Tea. It had wilted for about fifty hours then Sun dried and the day got really hot around ninety-eight degrees.
Had worked on the oven and that was really hot, the cement really setting fast, so was sprinkling it a bit with water so the bricks did not draw all the water out of the cement. Anyway went out to apply a little more water and the Copperhead was lying among all the bricks setting all around on the ground. Hated to kill it but what could I do, can’t have a poisonous snake right there. Fortunately for me that the shovel was right there, not so much for the snake.
So the tea dried out and I got colors I had never really seen in the normal White Tea, which reminded me of the Copperhead down among the bricks. It was all kind of weird.

05/31/2026

I used to work with this guy and his favorite saying when we got down to doing some job was "There is nothing to it but to do it."
Growing tea is like any other endeavor.
There was also this other guy we called 'Blister' because he always showed up after all the heavy lifting was done.

Is it time for tea? 🌱 🫖 ☕️

The University of California's Kearney Research and Extension Center thinks high-value tea crops might be just the ticket for small-acreage growers facing limited water supplies. Scientists there are working with 4,000 tea plants to determine optimal soil conditions, irrigation practices, disease and pest management strategies, and ways to reduce the labor demands of tea production.

Learn more about how tea is doing in California from our ATTRA news story at https://buff.ly/c9n65bE and hear about growing tea in a different climate from our Voices from the Field podcast "Episode 359: Teatime in Mississippi" at https://buff.ly/3lgKjAD

05/28/2026

An acquaintance of mine that really knows a lot about tea once said that tea should always be rinsed because a person can never know who handled it.