Pleasing teas: a new crop in Maryland

gotofarms

4 years ago

For Bob and Lori Baker, the idea of growing tea started out as a whim, hatched in a café in Greensboro, NC. “We were visiting relatives in North Carolina, sitting in a café outside drinking iced tea. We both had the idea, of growing and blending local tea back in 2012,” recalls Lori. A decade later, Maryland native tea has grown into a creative and demanding business at Heron’s Meadow, the Baker’s 43-acre farm in Howard County.

Tea connoisseurs from the surrounding counties and online have discovered the unique flavors of over 40 varieties of tea and herbal blends made under the name BLTeas a riff on the letters of their first names.

It’s the only farm in Maryland to grow thea sinensis—which is the quintessential tea plant native to India and China. The plant can be traced to primarily to the more tropical climates in China, Assam, and Cambodia.

Like most tea afficionados, they reserve the label of tea only for leaves from thea sinensisa. Herbal blends which are increasingly popular, are labelled as blends. Lori and Bob talk about the taste of teas, with the same intensity of Scotch enthusiasts, who will only drink Scotch from Scotland. Taste depends on the weather, temperature, soil and plant, among other factors.

“The average American will say I steeped some stuff in hot water and call it tea,” notes Bob.

Bob and Lori display tea wares at their shop

It has been a game of trial and error to develop the plants. The first hurdle was to see if the authentic plant, known to thrive in tropical climates, would grow in Maryland. Bob got a few plants from Burpee seed company for his home garden in Pasadena, Maryland, and Lori took a share for her home two miles down the road. The plants survived two cold winters. Both were then working full-time as engineers for the federal government.

Then Lori found the property which included a farmhouse and a barn amid the rolling hills of Howard County. A pond with a resident heron nestles between the road and a hill.

It took a year to clean up the property, which was full of debris, metal fences, and old dead trees.

They put in 50 plants the first spring.

“We didn’t know the comings and goings of wildlife, where the sun is seasonal, all that stuff you learn living at a farm,” explains Bob.

Avoiding pesticides, they have fought off rabbits, ground hogs, deer and other pests, along with an avalanche of weeds. But now over 1,000 healthy plants have survived, and they plan to expand the garden by adding a deer-proof fence to accommodate another 400 plants.

These hybrid seedlings promise to be hardier species for Maryland climate

Producing a unique Maryland tea plant

They have just reached the point where their native Maryland plants are established and producing seeds. Beekeeping makes for a complementary business; the bees pollinate the bushes. This year after three years of growth, with the help of the bees, they are growing their own unique hybrid that they hope will withstand the cold Maryland winters better.

Bob, who is the beekeeper, had a bad year last year when wasps attacked the bees, but he plans more hives this season.

When the Maryland plants do not provide enough material, Lori orders tea leaves from a California supplier, who imports teas from all over the world. The black and green teas come from Sri Lanka, China and Kenya. She makes batches of herbal tea from a prickly plant called rooibos.

Lori ,who retired from her job to devote full-time to the farm , describes the process of blending tea similar to making a cake. She is making eight blends this week. For Southern HospitaliTea, a fruity spicy blend, she places deep brown leaves from a 25-pound bag into two bowls. She sprays one with orange essential oils and the other with ginger peach—all organic extracts. For good measure, she adds a snippet of ginger, mixes it up and covers with a tea towel.

“I let it sit and let the flavors meld together, for at least 12 hours,” she explains. Then it’s packaged in plastic bags and available for sale, either in the store or online.“This is really the final stage of production. The hard part is actually turning the tea leaves into drinkable form.”

Some places harvest tea with machines but the better tasting tea comes from handpicking the new leaves, according to Lori. While Bob continues his government job, counting the days to his retirement, Lori does the painstaking picking, all by hand.

“For me, it’s a love of the land that keeps me involved,” she explains. “I love being able to consume the things I’ve grown. The honey from the tea blossoms. The tea from the honey. . .”

The products are on sale at the farm in a well-designed shop which displays all kinds of tea.

Lori also somehow finds time to throw cups and teapots at her pottery wheel and crochet whimsical articles at Mudpi Studios. She makes some unique tea utensils, including a tea infuser with a chain and pottery charm just right for one cup of home-brewed, Maryland tea.

For Tea Parties and Tastings

You can go to the facebook address, to learn about workshops in blending teas, tea tastings, and tea parties at the farm. You can order a variety of teas online at the online store, www.mkt.com/blteas or visit the shop at 1596 Daisy Road, Woodbine, MD, Fridays 12-5; Saturday 10-3.

If you want to know who invented tea or other odd facts, check out https://ww.teaanswers.com/types-tea/#ixzz7LSQlLgMm
For tips on making a perfect cup of tea, check out wikihow/make-a-good-cup-of-tea.

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