Tea Harvesting: Our Journey between India and Nepal Pt.2

In the last article, we only told you about the first part of our journey between India and Nepal, but in reality there are at least 3 parts and the one we are telling you today is the second. Once we left Nepal and said goodbye to Deepak's family, with whom we collected and worked tea for 10 days, our plan is to visit the Darjeeling plantations, relying on the advice and letters of recommendation provided by our friends from Jun Chiyabari, but this will be the third part of our story! So, we crossed the border on foot at Kakarbhita, on a splendid iron bridge crossed by a sea of people. The bridge serves to unite India and Nepal, divided at this point by the Mechi River. But in reality, for once the division is really very soft; India and Nepal have open borders and only tourists have to pass through the immigration office to stamp their passport. Reaching Darjeeling from the Nepalese region of Ilam is quite easy, just an 8-10 hour journey and you're there. We had booked a hotel in Darjeeling city from which we planned to move to visit different plantations. One of the most interesting of all was definitely the biodynamic garden of Makaibari, 15km from Darjeeling City. There we had the opportunity to stay with the families who collect the tea, contributing to their economic support, but above all to visit the factory, machinery, and garden with the owner Raja Banerjee, who had been informed of our arrival. With him, we visited the huge garden, while being introduced to the principles of biodynamics, a discipline founded by Rudolf Steiner, a very holistic personality from the early 1900s. We will leave to you the in-depth study of this discipline, saying only that two of its fundamental principles are the respect for lunar phases in sowing and harvesting and the fertilization of the soil through plant components and fresh and dry plants. An example above all: as we walked through the garden, there were a lot of lemongrass plants. Raja explained to us that this plant is fundamental because it is a formidable nitrogen fixer and therefore helps the plants to feed without depleting the soil. In fact, one of the things that struck us the most was the biodiversity of plants in the garden, but also the love and care with which the land was lived. The workers' houses are often inside the garden. Mister Raja Banerjee created the home staying program (here you can find all the information) at the tea pickers' houses, a perfect program for those like us who are passionate about tea! The money the farmers earn is partly left in their pockets and partly put into a common fund with which they build for the community. They were indeed equipped with a library for the children and a visitor center, entirely built with those funds. After visiting the garden and the factory, we moved on to a lesson on Darjeeling Tea accompanied by a tasting of the 1st and 2nd flush harvests of 2016. The 2nd flush particularly impressed us for its enveloping muscat notes, making it a delicate but at the same time rich black tea. A tea that is good both in the morning to get energized, but also for an afternoon tasting. In short, we decided that the biodynamic 2016 2nd flush of Makaibari had to be part of the Terza Luna catalog! And that's why today you can buy it both in-store and in our online shop. We spent another 10 days visiting other gardens and meeting people who have dedicated their lives to tea, to research, and to creating a better environment and world. It was a splendid journey thanks to which we were able to enrich ourselves with new, fresh, and field-acquired knowledge. Makaibari was definitely one of the places where we learned the most.

And so concludes the second part of our journey between Nepal and India to discover rare tea plantations. Soon on our blog you will be able to read the third and final part of this adventure.

 

Try our new Makaibari Darjeeling 2nd Flush biodynamic hand-picked during our trip