Women of Tea

Farmer Chen's wife from Pinglin, Taiwan served us tea in their shop.

Then she went to the tea field and demonstrated a tea picking hedge trimmer.

Farmer Chen told us she always stays awake and by his side when he is producing

the tea during the night so he won't fall asleep on the job.

Most often it is the women that pick the tea.

This particular morning they arrived to pick at 8AM.

They picked until mid day then took their tea in to be weighed at the production center.

This was a cooperative family farm on Alishan Mountain.

It was lovely to listen to them chatter as they worked with an occasional song.

Women are such a part of making our tea extra special

and doing whatever is necessary to get the job done.

Again another farmer's wife helped in the tearoom serving us tea.

On her back was her grand daughter.

Later she cooked for us.

Then visiting a tea school in Taiwan we learned the proper way to pick.

What fascinates me is that the men often get the recognition,

but it is the women that pick the tea, feed the people, care for the babies,

serve tea to the guests and generally hold things together.

In India I have learned through reading that the owners of tea plantations

give the money to the women to manage because they do the care taking

and don't go out to drink after work.

One farmer in India now has his daughter producing the tea because that is

where her heart and talent are.  The son works in the office, but the daughter

is hands on for creating beautiful teas.

Many women are now becoming entrepreneurs, creating their own businesses,

and running their own farms. One of my tea friends is an attorney in New York,

but also owns and produces tea in Nepal and has a partnership with someone there.

She travels back and forth between the US and Nepal, keeping an apartment in both places.

She produces a delicious white tea.

There is also a woman here in Oregon that is the president of the

U.S. Tea Growers Association and also grows her own tea right here in the states.

She has some very nice teas.

Women are also taking leadership rolls in tea education,

many of them I call "friends".

I love seeing the blossoming of women in the world of tea.

So if you sip a cup of tea send love to all those women and men too

that make that cup possible.

Happy weekend, dear friends!

I hope you have some moments to sip a cup of tea.