The typical ones we found in the tea growing regions supported great diversity. Tea plants, corn, root vegetables, fruit trees, livestock, hens of all sorts and no outside inputs, such as petro-based fertilizers. Here, outside Chavakali, are two shambas, side by side. Tea at the bottom, corn next, then bananas and fruit trees.
Every four to five hours, the leaves are transferred from basket to sack and carried off to a roadside weigh station. As I crouched down with my camera, none of the women would stop. Finally, after some pleading, this bright faced picker stopped and flashed me a smile. The other girl rushed by, giggling, with her hand covering her smile
The typical tea leaf basket carried by pickers the world over. In Kenya, because the leaves are large, these baskets hold between five and seven kilos of leaves. This translates to just about one kilo of made tea. It takes two to four hours to fill this basket, depending on the experience of the picker.
Pickers will fill two to three of these baskets a day and receive between 15 to 20 cents per kilogram. From the basket, we dumped the fresh plucked leaves onto the withering table as Paul clearly points out. We had just constructed it the day before, and it worked really well. The leaves sit on a cloth mesh allowing air to circulate around them. You can also see the fan in the lower right side, which provided the much needed air movement.
The most laborious step in the making of hand crafted tea is the hand rolling stage. We grab a handful of the withered leaves and start rolling them against a rough surfaced mat. We are using pieces of conveyor belt in this photo because the uneven surface sticks to the leaves and rolls them into tightly wound sticks.
After the rolling stage, the leaves are separated and spread out again under plastic to oxidize. They generate some heat during this phase and a miniature micro-environment is created under the plastic sheet expediting this crucial ‘flavor producing’ stage. Too much heat will cook the leaves, so turning the leaves every 30 minutes or so is a task that must be done like clockwork.
We took advantage of the daily hot sun and spread the oxidized tea leaves over a piece of sheet metal in full sunlight. The reflected rays dried the leaves in less than four hours. In this picture the leaves are about half-way through drying. The aroma emanating from the steel sheet was heavenly: sweet, fresh tea in its purest form.
The Great Rift Valley. As you know, if you buy Kenyan tea, one of the first questions you ask ‘is the tea from West of the Rift Valley?’ It is a common fact amongst tea buyers that once you cross this great divide, the tea growing gets better and the tea tastes better. We crossed the Rift Valley, and as we descended down into its depths, we stopped so I could get a shot of the incredible expanse that has divided central Africa into two distinct areas.
Comments
Well done!
You did it. Congratulations! I am so glad that I have found you today to learn that you have helped Kenyan small tea farmers to appreciate their tea for the first time and to sell their made tea to tea lovers through you. I have been trying to find a way to help Kenyan tea pickers to end their poverty cycle. You have shown a path for this quest. I am very grateful for your effort. If possible, I would like to meet you to talk about how you have done this and how I can help you to scale up to end the poverty cycle of 100 million people working in tea industry living below poverty line.
Grace and peace,
DH
Hi DH,
Sorry it has taken me so long to respond to your note on the blog. I don’t check in much anymore as you can see, but I am now making a concerted effort to start writing again. I (kind of) ran out of things to talk about with tea, but your response to my post is received with sincere thanks.
I was just a consultant for Justea – the Company spearheading small scale, farmer produced tea.
I would encourage you to contact Grayson or Paul at Justea here in Vancouver.
Good Luck,