265
fields or tombs
some sites are only a few hundred yards from
the village but others a mile or more away.
Tea is first picked in the second ten-day period of the third lunar month: this is often close to the Ching Ming tomb worship-ping festival when villagers will in any case be visiting their tombs. If the tea is ready, worshipping can conveniently be combined with tea picking in a single one-day trip. The middle of the third lunar month is the time when the new young tender leaves are at their full size but have not yet thickened and coarsened — the best possible time for picking them. Traditionally, this period coincid-ed conveniently with a slack time in the rice-fields, after the first rice crop was transplanted out (end of first lunar month), and before the major cleaning of the crop from weed (end of third lunar month).
Both men and women pick the tea. First, any creepers or weeds which have grown up around the tea trees since the previous year are cut away. Then the new leaves are stripped off the tree. Most of the leaves are picked, but a proportion must be left to preserve the health of the tree. Later, new leaves will sprout to replace those stripped off: these were traditionally left for a few weeks and then picked. The trees would be stripped up to four times a year. At present, however, the villagers only pick for their own use, and only strip the trees once: the other strippings were to provide leaf for sale in the market towns. The first picking was by far the best; the later pickings producing a coarser tea with a poorer taste.
Previously, in preparation for the tea picking, the women of the village cut firewood on the hills and stack it near the houses to dry. Each house has a brick-built stove with a brick chimney which has on it an alcove for the Kitchen God shrine. The stoves are con-structed in the form of a hollow brick box with a circular hole on the top into which a wok just fits, and an opening on the side to allow the fire lit inside the stove to be tended.
When the fresh tea leaves are carried back to the houses they have a slight fragrance and taste, but neither the fragrance nor the taste is at all similar to that of the prepared tea. To achieve the desired tea taste and fragrance it is necessary to rid the tea leaves of
265
fields or tombs
some sites are only a few hundred yards from
the village but others a mile or more away.
Tea is first picked in the second ten-day period of the third lunar month: this is often close to the Ching Ming tomb worship- ping festival when villagers will in any case be visiting their tombs. If the tea is ready, worshipping can conveniently be combined with tea picking in a single one-day trip. The middle of the third lunar month is the time when the new young tender leaves are at their full size but have not yet thickened and coarsened — the best possible time for picking them. Traditionally, this period coincid- ed conveniently with a slack time in the rice-fields, after the first rice crop was transplanted out (end of first lunar month), and before the major cleaning of the crop from weed (end of third lunar month).
Both men and women pick the tea. First, any creepers or weeds which have grown up around the tea trees since the previous year are cut away. Then the new leaves are stripped off the tree.' Most of the leaves are picked, but a proportion must be left to preserve the health of the tree. Later, new leaves will sprout to replace those stripped off: these were traditionally left for a few weeks and then picked. The trees would be stripped up to four times a year. At present, however, the villagers only pick for their own use, and only strip the trees once: the other strippings were to provide leaf for sale in the market towns. The first picking was by far the best the later pickings producing a coarser tea with a poorer taste.
Previously, in preparation for the tea picking, the women of the village cut firewood on the hills and stack it near the houses to dry. Each house has a brick built stove with a brick chimney which has on it an alcove for the Kitchen God shrine. The stoves are con- structed in the form of a hollow brick box with a circular hole on the top into which a wok just fits, and an opening on the side to allow the fire lit inside the stove to be tended.
When the fresh tea leaves are carried back to the houses they have a slight fragrance and taste, but neither the fragrance nor the taste is at all similar to that of the prepared tea. To achieve the desired tea taste and fragrance it is necessary to rid the tea leaves of
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