Although I only rarely drink tea, preferring coffee instead, the field trip opportunity sounded interesting, so my wife, who is a tea drinker, and I signed up and went.
The group was the Golden Agers of our church. Although I still consider myself to be middle-aged, I've reluctantly accepted the fact that I'm now a member of that group, albeit perhaps one of the two youngest members. (My wife, who is still clinging to her youth, is the other.)
But enough about age.
The outing was a tour of the Table Rock Tea Company farm in Pickens, South Carolina. It's located in the very shadow of Table Rock and the state park there. It's just off SC Highway 11, which runs through what's called the Dark Corner and is also known as the Cherokee Foothills Scenic Highway.
Our tour began promptly at 10 a.m. (a second tour begins at 2 p.m.). We boarded the three open wagons pulled by the Tea Tug, which looked similar to an airport baggage tractor, except for its teapot hood ornament (barely visible in the photo below).
Our guide was a charming, soon-to-be-16-year-old young lady named Isabella. She knew her information cold but delivered it in an exciting and animated way with just the right touch of humor and frequent tea-related puns.
We drove past their herb garden, stopping along a hedgerow of tea plants long enough for Isabella to pluck and show us tea leaves, buds, and blooms and to explain the process of cultivating them. Then we moved on to the greenhouse, where she explained the use of tea seeds to grow tea plants, the care of the plants, their planting, and the picking of the leaves at just the right time. Pruning (tea plants are actually trees but must be pruned to keep them within reach of harvesters), the proper amount of sunlight (not too much or they'll burn and die), and a deep, well-watered root system are all critical elements of raising productive tea plants.
We left the greenhouse and rode next to what they call the Lazarus Field. It is a hillside area where in 2017-18 they had planted about 500 tea plants in their first production field. That winter turned out to be the "harshest winter on record for 100 years," and "all but 14 tea plants died." Disheartened by the loss, the owners, Steve and Jennifer Lortch, were almost ready to quit.
But they didn't. Instead, they worked to revive the nearly destroyed field, bringing it back from the dead, so to speak, in much the same way as Jesus raised Lazarus. It lived, grew, and thrived, saving their fledgling business. A sign in front of Lazarus Field reads, "This field is a reminder of the hope we have in Jesus Christ. God raises the dead, and because He lives, so can we!"
Next, we returned to our starting point, where we toured the tea museum and heard a brief lecture and viewed an accompanying video about the process of making different kinds of tea from the same tea plant. After a brief Q&A that clarified our understanding of the information we'd received, we sampled two different teas. I, of course, sampled the Southern version (sweet iced tea) whereas my wife, a Yankee by birth and upbringing, tasted the Northern version (unsweetened).
We came away with a sampler box of assorted teas: Bear Claw (dark oolong), Carolina Lapsang (smoked black tea), Autumn Orchard (apple cinnamon green tea), Westminster (apricot sage green tea), Walhalla Masala (chai), Cousin Earl ("still a grey, but more fun"), Winter Leaf (cold-harvest green tea), Happy Treat ("feel-good G.I. relief tea"), and Marathon (Kenyan black tea).
Next door to the museum, a neighboring family with 10 children (one of whom was our tour guide, Isabella) had their own business, Homesteader's Dream. Their hand-crafted, all-natural products included lavender shea soap, sachets, bath bombs, body butter, and perfume and lip balms as well as natural loofah sponges.
I enjoyed watching and eavesdropping on budding sales people as all of the children in the family were involved in selling their various products. The youngest expertly explained to me all the types and benefits of lip balm. Zig Ziglar couldn't have done it better.
Our field trip wasn't complete until we had a leisurely lunch at Aunt Sue's Country Corner Cafe, which is located just down the road from the Table Rock Tea Company. I had their country-style steak and gravy with green beans. To complete my "meat and two," my second choice of "vegetable" was their cobbler of the day--peach.
My wife continued her unfulfilled quest to find a Philly cheesesteak that even somewhat approximates the original cheesesteaks of her stomping grounds of Philadelphia. She said she had finally found it. Now we'll have to go back so I can get one, too!
If you're ever anywhere near Pickens, S.C., and Table Rock, you owe it to yourself to visit the Table Rock Tea Company--even if you're not a tea drinker. If you're a tea connoisseur, it's a must-see destination!
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