We have welcomed another season for preparing new tea. The crop of our tea garden in the Okazaki City, Aichi Prefecture are later prepared than the large major tea production areas of Kyushu Miyazaki and Shizuoka in Japan.
Now, in the tea plantations of Miyazaki Garden, the cherry blossoms blossom around and the voice of the Uguisu echoes, we are working for the new tea crop in a most pleasant season.
The process of cutting off tea leafs is a preparation to remove the old leaves remaining in the tea plant so that new leafs can emerge at once. It also means that old leaves are not mixed during harvesting.
The tea tree grow in spring rapidly. Following picture shows there are so many branches and leaves even near Miyazakien,
Each garden has a style of tea plantation in different way for tailoring and cutting. There are really many ways. So it does not matter which one is good or bad exactly. On the same day, in the same area, under the same sunshine conditions, you may find such a different image.
Following picture is shot at another tea plantation in Miyazakien. The black screens are ready to use for blackouting. It looks like just after haircut and refreshing.
In the case of Miyazakien, the dropped leaves are circulated as fertilizer. Not only cut leaves but also fertilizers fermented mainly with rice bran, tea trees are carefully grown using traditional farming methods. Our agriculture is based on land that does not use chemical fertilizers, so it can be sustained.
Oh, something is moving over there …
My dog Ace was happy to eat rice bran fertilizer. A rice bran for a dog? ? It is a little strange, but it tasted deliciously. So she stuck it all over her face and even her tongue.
Metropolitan areas in Japan, such as Tokyo and Osaka, will have a difficult life in the future due to infectious disease control. Many events of various places that go out for sale in the normal year before the new tea season are canceled one after another from about February, and tea making is proceeding quietly as usual in the old Nukata town in the local and mountainous area.
Opportunities to go outside have decreased, and in March we discussed how to manage Miyazakien. We want to let lot of more people know about the taste of tea brewed from leaves, and want to continue the tea making of Okazaki City and Former Nukata Town since the Edo period. We have a lot to do. However, there is a limit to what we can do with a small tea garden and a small number of people. This year we have been working on tea making (from harvesting leaves to producing crude tea) as usual, but apart from that, we may work anew.
- When farming work such as harvesting is in full swing, we will have a morning and evening meeting every day. Until now, we have worked with many people who have been helping our family for many years and thought that it would be possible to talk without talking. But we have to change our mind. In the morning, sharing the plan of the day and having them work independently, in the evening, grasping their progress and making a plan for the next day together, so this way of movement is more efficient Looks good.
- We are planning about new tea products. Miyazakien, which has a strong image of a tea supplier, is also a tea farmer. In particular, customers who like tea visiting the Miyazakien’s store also like for our green tea and processed other tea black tea, Wa Kocha, roasted green tea, Hojicha. At Miyazakien, we are working on a new approach to the green tea, Sencha, and the roasted tea, Hojicha, starting with this season’s tea. Details will be announced at a later date.
- This year, we will participate in the Okazaki Shaved Ice Road, an event led by the Nukakata Chamber of Commerce. Miyazakien begins it in mid-June when the new tea cultivating and processing is over. There is also a new product in this event.
- We would like to expand the fields managed by Miyazakien on a yearly basis and increase the supply of tea at Miyazakien. We want to expand the management area of tea plantations, mainly in the former Nukata-cho and Miyazaki districts. We would be grateful if you would like to speak out to those who are having trouble managing the tea plantations that are becoming abandoned arable land.
As usual, some of the processing equipment was replaced and repaired before the cutting off. Our stores are changing its style by hands little by little. In the tea plantation, the curtain will begin shortly after the pruning is over. Everyone waiting for our new tea, please wait for a while.
