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If they can grow tea in England, why not Scotland? So pondered Susie Walker-Munro after hearing about Cornwall’s Tregothnan Estate. An idea took root, but her plan wouldn’t be without challenges — not least Scotland’s short growing season and harsh winters.
The story begins in 2007 with the arrival of the first cuttings from Cornwall. Susie’s aim was to diversify her offering at Kinnettles Farm, in the Valley of Strathmore, Angus, by producing a high-end crop. “It was never going to be a quick project,” she says. “It’s like planting an apple orchard — you aren’t going to make any money for at least seven years.”
It was a steep learning curve, and the first shrubs, planted in an exposed field, failed. The solution was to grow them using polytunnels plus a rich, liquid manure made from comfrey, nettles and dock leaves — “after plucking, you have to give back to the plants, as you’re taking about 5% of the leaves,” Susie explains.
The leaves, rolled on the farm, eventually became Kinnettles Gold, Susie’s single-estate tea, launched in 2015 through Pekoe Tea in Edinburgh. Encouraged, her next target was to grow Scottish tea from seeds, because the resulting plants have a longer life span than those from cuttings. But to make it viable, Susie needed to scale up. So, in 2016, she put feelers out and a collective of nine female growers was formed. Named Tea Gardens of Scotland, the endeavour encompasses mini plantations in abandoned walled gardens and farms across Angus, Perthshire, Fife and Kincardineshire, each with its own terroir. In the same year, Susie met Beverley Wainwright, a tea consultant at The Scottish Tea Factory in Comrie, Perthshire, who joined her on fact-finding trips to Sri Lanka, Japan, India and Nepal. They sourced cold-tolerant seeds to propagate their own plants. “I can’t tell you how many we killed at first, planting them out when they were a year old,” Susie recalls. “We put windbreak netting used by broccoli growers over them, but the snow landed on top, snapped the posts and crushed the tea plants.”
But perseverance paid off. Nine Ladies Dancing small-batch black tea, processed by The Scottish Tea Factory, with notes of caramel, milk chocolate and dried vine fruit, is now sold at Fortnum & Mason, priced at £200 per 100g.
Susie recalls a US buyer who, while trudging through the Tea Garden in the rain, remarked, “What difficult conditions you girls are working in!” She laughs. “I thought: yes, we’re bonkers! But when you do something you really love, you get huge pleasure from it.”
1. Tregothnan, Cornwall
The UK pioneer has 150 acres of tea plants and offers tours and masterclasses. River Garden Tour, £65. One-day Tea School Masterclass, £145.
2. Peterston Tea, Vale of Glamorgan
This family farm in Wales began growing tea in 2014. Its single-estate range includes green, toasted green and black teas. It also produces kombucha.
3. Broich Tea Garden, Perthshire
Broich offers a range of tea-related courses and workshops in association with The Scottish Tea Factory, just a few miles away.
Source: www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/meet-the-womens-collective-growing-tea-in-scotland
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