Have you seen kids by a lake feeding the waterfowl? Little guys throwing crumbs of bread at ducks and geese, celebrating when the birds guzzle more food? In my travels across the tea producing regions of China and South Korea, I have found my hosts to be like those kids… and I am like a happy goose.
My latest trip was to Qiao Ban, a very small mountain village in the western part of Zhejiang Province. My objective was to meet Mrs. Zhan Zimei and Mr. Wen Xingzou, parents of a good friend of mine, and long-time tea farmers. I was, they told me, the first non-Chinese to join the harvest of chrysanthemum flowers that grow wild on the mountain slopes. And I was thrilled to meet these wonderful people who have each devoted over 50 years to the art of tea, and was honored to join them for dinner.
Mrs. Zhan and her granddaughters
In the mountains of China, I discovered once again, it is useless to say that you are full. Whenever your bowl is half-way empty, your hosts will serve some more rice, or throw in a fried egg with their chopsticks… or urge you to eat more from a bowl of veggies. The best you can do is top the bowl (making the hosts proud) and eat very slowly, timing to eat the last 30% once the rest of the table has finished.
Rice? The pantry’s right by the kitchen.
No complaints. Sharing their tea, made with traditional methods,was the highlight of the trip; but the food alone, made fresh with vegetables from their gardens, roots that grow wild on the mountain and freshly laid eggs would have been a great reason to travel.
A day’s harvest
If you would like to learn more about Mrs. Zhan & Mr. Wen’s wild chrysanthemum tea, I invite you to visit the Dao Tea online artisan tea shop (http://daotea.mybigcommerce.com/products/Wild-Chrysanthemum.html).
