This past Saturday, Steve, Sharon and I went on a Tea Picking excursion out to Taihu Lake. A local tea farmer that produces and sells the Bilouchun Tea brand (which by the way is a very famous brand for Jiangsu Province) allowed us to go out to his farm and see how tea is picked and processed. This was an Expat Association of Suzhou (EAS) venture so it was the first time that I met other expats besides the ones I work with at the plant. So we arrived at the pickup point and traveled by bus the 90 minutes out to the area. The only interesting tidbit from this was that the bus stopped at a local hotel out near the farming area so we could use the restroom. They were not going to take the risk of using the toilets at the farm so we pulled into the hotel parking lot and took a potty break. Not something you would encounter on a typical bus tour in the US, rest stops yes but not at a fancy pants hotel to use the potty (although it was a nice potty). This would be a nice place to stay for a long weekend or something.
So after driving through a small town and taking some back roads (on the tour bus which was not really meant for these kinds of roads), we made it to the stopping point and got out to walk to the farmer’s house, about a 10 minute walk. We walked through the village past several homes and through a true Chinese neighborhood, not the city living in Suzhou but the true rural living. The area had orange trees, ginko trees and tea bushes for harvesting. There were “free range” chickens, cats and dogs. The one thing I notice here is that the pets aren’t treated the same as the US. The dogs, even those with homes all look like pets roaming the streets, not well groomed or cared for. I think this is where the term “mangy dog” comes from; the photo I took of the farmer’s dog is typical of what the local dogs look like. You’d almost think they were wild animals (mad dog, mad dog). I don’t think it’s that they don’t care about the animals; they just don’t view them in the same light as we do. Pets are animals and not family members. Shadow wouldn’t have survived for long here, one hop up on the bed to sleep and she’d be dinner.
So we arrive at the farm and get a quick tea tasting, see the photo of the tea. It’s green tea and to me it still looks like grass clippings and tastes like hot water filled with grass clippings. Tea just doesn’t seem to be for me but perhaps it’s an acquired taste (like if you’re marooned on a desert island for 3 years, it’d probably taste okay), keep in mind there’s no sugar or cream added to the tea, it’s just the leaves and water. I don’t get it but 1 billion people can’t be wrong, can they? So we taste and then grab our buckets and head out to the fields to pick some tea. The view was beautiful, we walked along a path overlooking the lake, it was a fairly clear day and it was just nice to get out and walk on a path without being surrounded by people. We got to the spot and watched a few workers techniques and learned that you needed to pick the new growth on the bushes. So we started to pick and after about 20 minutes, it was time to head back in. I didn’t even get the bottom of my bucket covered and many others were having the same issue. These leaves are about the size of a very small pine needle in length and perhaps twice the width of the needle. So we headed back to the farmer’s home to watch how the tea is prepared.
They first sort the tea leaves (not sure exactly how they sorted them but they did), they had 6 people around a table picking through the leaves and sorting them (she loves me….she loves me not….). Once they sorted the tea, they then put it into a large wok (for lack of a better description) and used their gloved hands to constantly move the tea along the heat pan to dry it and get out some of the water. After 15 minutes they transferred it to a second pan and heated it again. After the second heating, they would then dry the leaves for a given period of time. Once dry, they distributed the tea into the packaging materials. They showed us all how this was done. We could purchase the tea for 100 RMB for 250 grams, which was interesting knowing that the workers got 50 RMB for a day’s worth of work, so we were throwing 2 days pay into buying tea. Odd when you consider that angle to the story.
So after getting all of this information, we got back on the bus and headed to lunch. We stopped at a floating restaurant along the lake that was well known for it’s white menu (and I’m not talking honky white, it’s the food descriptions). White fish, white bait (I swear this is what she said and she said it several times so I’m sure I got it correct…then again this was the same woman that called the crab farmers, crap farmers but I digress) and white prawns. So they served the white dishes along with chicken, beef, chicken soup, tofu (there it is again) and vegetables. I saw the chicken soup come out and I was looking forward to it as it was spun around on the lazy susan. I dipped the spoon in to get some and as the spoon is coming up [insert the Jaws music here, dun, dun…..dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun….] I notice a comb, eyes and beak as Foghorn Leghorn is coming up from under the water staring at me (I say now, lookie here boy, what we have here is a failure to communicate). Okay, I didn’t scream although I’m sure I had a nice look on my face. It was the whole enchilada, skin, bones, everything. I did happen to allow Foghorn to return to the depths while I fished around (no pun intended) for some other portion of the carcass, preferably with meat. Disappointing isn’t it, Andrew Zimmerman would’ve said “Mmm, that’s good beak”. Other than that, the food was good. Just in case you were wondering, what’s the white bait, well it was basically scrambled eggs with some kind of aquatic creature meat in it. It looked like crab meat but I could not be sure. I didn’t eat it, I stay away from food from the local lakes and such since I know that they aren’t the same environmental restrictions in China so a lot of “stuff” gets dumped in the lake. The village where the farmer lived, the backs of the homes had the pipes going out from the house and on to the ground….for everything. There was an open sewer system alongside the streets and homes and guess where that all led? Since this was up above the lake, you know what they say rolls downhill. I’ve seen too many fish doing a backstroke and I would almost imagine it’s a relief for the fish to get caught (“Thanks pal, I was having trouble breathing down there”).
One last tidbit from the visit to share before I close this portion of the show. The bathrooms were the standard squatty potty at the floating restaurant. There were several eateries all lined up alongside each other. Well, the bathroom had one stall that contained a large window that faced the other restaurant. The ladies were beside themselves because if you were to use this stall, you’d be seen by less people on YouTube (which is still banned in China by the way, thanks to the idiots that posted the fake video). I’m not sure exactly who thought of this but I have noticed this in other places. The windows will be lower than what we expect in the US so there’s no hiding what you’re doing. I guess when you’re down in the catcher’s stance (that’s the old pepper boy) you like to look around and see what’s happening (Ni hao). We’re more used to the windows being much higher so you get the sunlight and stuff but don’t risk the peep show. Again just something else that’s different here in China.
Oops! Another item to be mentioned. This trip took a long time to be arranged. It has to be arranged through the government, believe it or not. If the government provides you with the information to look into the trip, you’re okay. If they don’t……there’s no trip. This was the first time the expat group was allowed to go in 3 or 4 years. Think about this, just a simple trip to see a tea field and pick tea with the locals needed government oversight and approval. So tell me again why the expansion of the government in the US is a good thing? Anyhow, the peak tea picking time is around Tomb Sweeping weekend and then each week after that it goes downhill. The tea isn’t as good the later it’s picked past that weekend. When they make the tea, they boil the water (Whew! I’m always worried about that) then allow it to cool to 80 degrees before they pour it over the tea leaves. That’s the optimal settings for green tea….allegedly. My optimal settings, dump it out and till in into the soil for mulch and then grab a cold one.
I’ll close this for today and post again soon about the other two places visited over the weekend and my adventure in the barbershop. Don’t forget to look at the photos, I posted all of the photos from the weekend just for you (and you, and you….). Enjoy!
So after driving through a small town and taking some back roads (on the tour bus which was not really meant for these kinds of roads), we made it to the stopping point and got out to walk to the farmer’s house, about a 10 minute walk. We walked through the village past several homes and through a true Chinese neighborhood, not the city living in Suzhou but the true rural living. The area had orange trees, ginko trees and tea bushes for harvesting. There were “free range” chickens, cats and dogs. The one thing I notice here is that the pets aren’t treated the same as the US. The dogs, even those with homes all look like pets roaming the streets, not well groomed or cared for. I think this is where the term “mangy dog” comes from; the photo I took of the farmer’s dog is typical of what the local dogs look like. You’d almost think they were wild animals (mad dog, mad dog). I don’t think it’s that they don’t care about the animals; they just don’t view them in the same light as we do. Pets are animals and not family members. Shadow wouldn’t have survived for long here, one hop up on the bed to sleep and she’d be dinner.
So we arrive at the farm and get a quick tea tasting, see the photo of the tea. It’s green tea and to me it still looks like grass clippings and tastes like hot water filled with grass clippings. Tea just doesn’t seem to be for me but perhaps it’s an acquired taste (like if you’re marooned on a desert island for 3 years, it’d probably taste okay), keep in mind there’s no sugar or cream added to the tea, it’s just the leaves and water. I don’t get it but 1 billion people can’t be wrong, can they? So we taste and then grab our buckets and head out to the fields to pick some tea. The view was beautiful, we walked along a path overlooking the lake, it was a fairly clear day and it was just nice to get out and walk on a path without being surrounded by people. We got to the spot and watched a few workers techniques and learned that you needed to pick the new growth on the bushes. So we started to pick and after about 20 minutes, it was time to head back in. I didn’t even get the bottom of my bucket covered and many others were having the same issue. These leaves are about the size of a very small pine needle in length and perhaps twice the width of the needle. So we headed back to the farmer’s home to watch how the tea is prepared.
They first sort the tea leaves (not sure exactly how they sorted them but they did), they had 6 people around a table picking through the leaves and sorting them (she loves me….she loves me not….). Once they sorted the tea, they then put it into a large wok (for lack of a better description) and used their gloved hands to constantly move the tea along the heat pan to dry it and get out some of the water. After 15 minutes they transferred it to a second pan and heated it again. After the second heating, they would then dry the leaves for a given period of time. Once dry, they distributed the tea into the packaging materials. They showed us all how this was done. We could purchase the tea for 100 RMB for 250 grams, which was interesting knowing that the workers got 50 RMB for a day’s worth of work, so we were throwing 2 days pay into buying tea. Odd when you consider that angle to the story.
So after getting all of this information, we got back on the bus and headed to lunch. We stopped at a floating restaurant along the lake that was well known for it’s white menu (and I’m not talking honky white, it’s the food descriptions). White fish, white bait (I swear this is what she said and she said it several times so I’m sure I got it correct…then again this was the same woman that called the crab farmers, crap farmers but I digress) and white prawns. So they served the white dishes along with chicken, beef, chicken soup, tofu (there it is again) and vegetables. I saw the chicken soup come out and I was looking forward to it as it was spun around on the lazy susan. I dipped the spoon in to get some and as the spoon is coming up [insert the Jaws music here, dun, dun…..dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun….] I notice a comb, eyes and beak as Foghorn Leghorn is coming up from under the water staring at me (I say now, lookie here boy, what we have here is a failure to communicate). Okay, I didn’t scream although I’m sure I had a nice look on my face. It was the whole enchilada, skin, bones, everything. I did happen to allow Foghorn to return to the depths while I fished around (no pun intended) for some other portion of the carcass, preferably with meat. Disappointing isn’t it, Andrew Zimmerman would’ve said “Mmm, that’s good beak”. Other than that, the food was good. Just in case you were wondering, what’s the white bait, well it was basically scrambled eggs with some kind of aquatic creature meat in it. It looked like crab meat but I could not be sure. I didn’t eat it, I stay away from food from the local lakes and such since I know that they aren’t the same environmental restrictions in China so a lot of “stuff” gets dumped in the lake. The village where the farmer lived, the backs of the homes had the pipes going out from the house and on to the ground….for everything. There was an open sewer system alongside the streets and homes and guess where that all led? Since this was up above the lake, you know what they say rolls downhill. I’ve seen too many fish doing a backstroke and I would almost imagine it’s a relief for the fish to get caught (“Thanks pal, I was having trouble breathing down there”).
One last tidbit from the visit to share before I close this portion of the show. The bathrooms were the standard squatty potty at the floating restaurant. There were several eateries all lined up alongside each other. Well, the bathroom had one stall that contained a large window that faced the other restaurant. The ladies were beside themselves because if you were to use this stall, you’d be seen by less people on YouTube (which is still banned in China by the way, thanks to the idiots that posted the fake video). I’m not sure exactly who thought of this but I have noticed this in other places. The windows will be lower than what we expect in the US so there’s no hiding what you’re doing. I guess when you’re down in the catcher’s stance (that’s the old pepper boy) you like to look around and see what’s happening (Ni hao). We’re more used to the windows being much higher so you get the sunlight and stuff but don’t risk the peep show. Again just something else that’s different here in China.
Oops! Another item to be mentioned. This trip took a long time to be arranged. It has to be arranged through the government, believe it or not. If the government provides you with the information to look into the trip, you’re okay. If they don’t……there’s no trip. This was the first time the expat group was allowed to go in 3 or 4 years. Think about this, just a simple trip to see a tea field and pick tea with the locals needed government oversight and approval. So tell me again why the expansion of the government in the US is a good thing? Anyhow, the peak tea picking time is around Tomb Sweeping weekend and then each week after that it goes downhill. The tea isn’t as good the later it’s picked past that weekend. When they make the tea, they boil the water (Whew! I’m always worried about that) then allow it to cool to 80 degrees before they pour it over the tea leaves. That’s the optimal settings for green tea….allegedly. My optimal settings, dump it out and till in into the soil for mulch and then grab a cold one.
I’ll close this for today and post again soon about the other two places visited over the weekend and my adventure in the barbershop. Don’t forget to look at the photos, I posted all of the photos from the weekend just for you (and you, and you….). Enjoy!
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