Teeth Picked Tea

It is certainly possible to find tea news in odd places. The News of the Weird column in Funny Times newspaper had this one. The historic Jiuhua Mountain Tea Plantation in Gushi, Henan Province, China has promised to hire 10 virgins, without scars or blemishes to pick tea in a special way. They are to do this using their teeth and dropping the leaves into small baskets tied around their necks. The reason for this is that this specially handled tea would bring prosperity and cure disease. The women are to be paid an unheard of $80 a day. (source, The London Mail) I wonder if this is really true? I wonder how much the tea would cost?  Surely more than I would pay.

Fall is truly coming, now the day insects are doing their end of summer songs. The sound of the chain saw and axe is heard, as people get their wood ready for winter burning. The trees on the hills are no longer super green, but are shifting towards their autumn colors. Nights are cool, there is morning fog. I am partly excited - I love fall, but a little sad, as I love summer’s produce. This morning I made more pesto from our basil and picked some tomatoes. Next year I really have to treat them better. I am beginning to think about soups and stews instead of tomato salad.

I made a watermelon and feta salad last night, with orange mint and lime juice - the essence of summer. The watermelon was a really super tasty one. Ice tea with it on the porch and it was lovely. Orange mint has such a nice intense flavor. It is good in Indian raitas and makes an excellent addition to a tea you might want to jazz up a bit. I am going to dry some for winter. Our attic is perfect - too hot to breathe and good air circulation. We also have chocolate mint, which is another good tea jazzer upper. They are both pretty plants, but can be aggressive. I am sort of using them as ground covers, because I got tired of digging in our awful soil.

Report on Tao of Tea’s Ginger Peach as ice tea. It’s not much. Maybe I should have doubled the amount of tea as they suggest, but I don’t like strong ice tea. This was just cold from the fridge - no ice, but it just tasted blah, with a tiny hint of maybe the ginger. Oh well, I liked it hot.

That is my entire tea report for the day - I had a tooth out and can’t drink anything hot. So, of course, I am dying for a cup of tea. Going to the dentist - my favorite thing. NOT