Worldwide tremendous compliments for essential workers prove how valuable their works are! Food business, including tea industry, is also essential business for our lives. In addition to the nutritional benefits of tea, such as vitamins, amino acids, minerals and polyphenols etc., tea helps us to keep our minds healthy. This aspect is also essential for our lives in terms of QOL.

In this year, the coronavirus pandemic forces us to stop or cancel various events and ceremonies related to agriculture. Shizuoka Tea Market canceled the ceremony of its initial trade, as well as other events. Of course, the market keeps every day trade of first flush tea with sufficient hygiene measures mentioned before because supply chain of tea must go on due to their necessity.

The other day, a tea trader of Yabusaki-en kindly sent me a photo, which shows a fantastic scene of tea farming with shading in Okabe tea estate. I was so touched with the beautiful landscape and the great effort of covering tea canopies with black textile on the mountainside. Even in this situation, tea farming goes on in each tea estate, of course, including tea estates all over the world.

He also sent me extra photos which show deep-green shoots of tea plants grown under the shade of straws and tea farmers plucked the tea shoots for Gyokuro green tea in the first flush season in 2019.

The tea shoots covered by black textile sheets in the picture above will grow vividly and be plucked around Hachiju-Hachiya 1st May, the 88th day from Risshun, which is 3rd February in leap years. (Risshun is the first day of the spring, which is similar to Imbolc in Celts.)

In addition to the harvest scenes, I got the photo of application of organic fertilizer onto the soil of tea garden on the mountainside from him.

Tea farmers applied organic fertilizer at the middle of February. The organic matter would be moderately degraded to bioavailable nutrients with soil temperature increasing and absorbed by roots of tea plants.

Tea farming must go on.

The great efforts of tea farmers support our healthy life, I think. Their efforts and sophisticated skills remind me a phrase “Art of life”, which is mentioned as a representation of Teaism in “Book of Tea” written by Kakuzo Okakura.

Their profound works and the “Art of life” are essential for our life of good quality.

I hope we can enjoy the finest tea of first flush in this year and can live with healthy body and mind.

May Teas & Fortunes Be With You!!