On our recent trip to Charleston, SC my husband and I ventured to historic and picturesque Wadmalaw Island to visit the Charleston Tea Plantation. It's the only tea plantation in the United States. It's grounds include 127 acres of Camelia Sinensis tea plants, a working Tea factory and a charming gift shop (where we loaded up on tea). We opted for a tour of the grounds and found a greenhouse that was filled to the brim with tea plant cuttings. With the islands sandy soil and sub-tropical climate (and average rainfall of 52 inches per year), it's the perfect combination for growing tea plants.
Much to my surprise, we found that all tea, including black tea, green tea, and white tea, come from the same plant. Black tea goes though a period of oxidization before it's packaged. Green tea is pretty much picked and processed with literally no time on the oxidization belt. White tea? The tiny unopened buds are plucked off the stem, then processed like the green tea, with no oxidization. It was so interesting!
In the 1700's the first tea plants arrived in the US from China. There were several attempts to produce tea for consumption, but all attempts failed. In 1963 these tea plants, that were originally planted in Summerville, SC, were transplanted to the 127 acre farm on Wadmalaw Island. After 24 years of research and experimenting, the tea was ready for consumption and named American Classic Tea. I'm a huge tea drinker, so this was all amazing to me.
These tea bushes all look so perfectly manicured! That's because in the harvesting process the machinery neatly trims off just the tender new growth thus making them look so neat and tidy. They harvest 4-5 times per season.
Below is the greenhouse. These cuttings will be planted to make new gardens. Oh yes, these tea plants can live to be 600 years old!
A rare photograph of me in front of the main building.
My handsome hubby taking a break! Notice, he's in short sleeves, and I had 3 layers on, it was a chilly and rainy day in the south!
On our way to the tea plantation we passed a sign for U Pick Strawberries! Although it was raining we stopped and picked a good sized bucket of beautiful strawberries. Here is a picture of them on the vines.
Back at the motel it was time to sort through the strawberries, eat any that were not perfect and prepare them for the road trip home.
Because of all the rain that they'd had, they were not real sweet, but they were absolutely beautiful. Thankfully they made the long drive home in great shape. I rinsed them and popped them in the freezer as soon as I walked in the door.
Thanks for stopping by!
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