Tea and the Tractor 05-04-2026

White, green, oolong, and black teas are what happen when a professional engineer applies 30 years of systems-thinking to an acidic field in Howard County. You get the first tea farm in Maryland. Lori Baker, co-owner-operator of Heron's Meadow Farm, shares a candid look at the "identity crisis" of building a multi-faceted business and the relentless entrepreneurial spirit required to grow a crop that "isn't supposed to be here."

This program explores the transition from secure communications to sustainable agriculture, highlighting how the "engineering mind" never truly stops—it just finds new problems to solve, from designing a functional teapot spout to outsmarting a local vole infestation.

Herons Meadow Farm

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Today's podcast is brought to you by Mariah Bellmanor Kennel, offering dog boarding, bathing, and daycare in an eco-friendly environment. Our pet care with a personal touch is not just a motto. It's really what we do. Our touch extends to the food without preservatives, quality and natural shampoos, inclusive boarding, and a green living environment. Sounds like I might want to check in. Visit us anytime on our Facebook page, Mariah Bellmanor Kennel, or Mariah Bellmanor Kennel.com. Enjoy your program. Welcome to Raising Connections, connecting your community to others through critters, companions, commerce, and agriculture. I'm Ray Shan Mayer. Let's raise some connections. Here we go. Today, as always, we have a fun and interesting guest, Lori from BLTs. Lori, can you introduce yourself and tell us where you're from in your own voice?

SPEAKER_01 0:51

Hi, I'm Lori Baker, owner-operator of BLTs at Herons Meadow Farm. We kind of have a little bit of an identity crisis in that we are known as BLTs. We are known as Mudpie Studios because I'm a potter as well. Our farm's name is Herons Meadow Farm. So we're kind of reconciling all of that into one name per se. And so we normally call it like BLTs at Herons Meadow Farm or Mudpie Studios at Herons Meadow Farm. So that's who I am. I love it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:19

BLTs. When we were talking about this in the background before you came in, there were two questions. Do we get bacon, lettuce, tomato with a tea? Yes. Or you get Bob Laurie T's.

SPEAKER_01 1:29

There you go. My husband's name is Yeah, my husband's name is Bob. He's our punster and he's the one who came up with the name.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

And then Mud Pie Studios. That's near and dear to my heart. The story of how you came up with the name of Mud Pie PI.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

PI. Engineer by trade. Was an engineer for 30 years and started pottery kind of as a therapy. I was going through a divorce in early 2000s. Always loved pottery. And so I was like, I'm gonna try it. And did that, kept making more and more pieces and didn't have room for it. So I'm like, well, I'll try to get rid of some at like craft fairs and that kind of thing. So wanted a name to kind of reflect the engineering side of me, you know, which doesn't really die when you become an artist. They mesh more than people know, I think.

SPEAKER_00 2:14

Well, the science and arts intertwine. Yeah. Even when you think they're very separate, they really do make connections. Yeah. So Mud Pie Pie is an engineering number. It is a special number that we celebrate on March 14th every year. Yes. 3.142 infinity.

SPEAKER_01 2:34

Yes. And so this year we did celebrate Pie Day at the farm. And I made little hand pies for everybody that, you know, came in and we rolled out a new tea and that type of thing. So it was fun.

SPEAKER_00 2:46

Yeah. So mud for the pottery, pie for the engineer. Yeah. And BLT for Lori and Bob. Bob and Lori. Yeah. I love it. And Heron's Meadow Farm? Yes. Because I'm assuming you have herons in your meadow. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

I love it, yeah. And it was one of those things where when we bought the farm, we really didn't know what to call it. It had a name before I don't even remember what it was. But we have a big pond on the farm. And I would see all these heron, you know, fishing the pond and stuff, and knew at that point that somehow we had to incorporate them into the name.

SPEAKER_00 3:18

So I have to ask this. Pottery to me is wonderful because when I take a mug that has been potted by hand, it fits my hand. And if I put a tea or a coffee, or a lot of times I drink good old water out of my mug because they fit my hand. And it's very comforting for me. Is that how the two came together for you?

SPEAKER_01 3:40

I think it was kind of one of those serendipitous things. Had been doing pottery for years and enjoyed making teapots, in all honesty, that was one of my favorite things, just because you had to engineer it properly as well as make it gorgeous. You had to make the spout work, you had to make the lid fit, you had to make a handle that worked well. And all of the components that went into making a teapot are pulling from that engineering side, you know, as well as making them all look nice and cohesive, which pulls in the art side. So, you know, I had started that and loved tea as well. Huge tea fanatic. Cannot stand coffee. Sorry, coffee lovers out there. When I was leaving my engineering career, I knew I wanted to get into agriculture. Initially thought of doing grapes and vineyard and all that type of thing, but wanted to get into more organic and sustainable farming. Grapes are hard here in Maryland to do sustainably or organically. It's too humid, there's too many funguses and bugs and stuff. Plus, the cost of entry was huge. Absolutely. Yeah, if you were gonna build a vineyard and a wine tasting room. So my husband was the one. We were down in North Carolina drinking a cup of tea, and he was kind of like, hey, why don't we see if we grow tea? And I'm like, you've gotta be nuts. We can't grow tea here in Maryland. So we gave it a shot. We were dating at the time. He had a place out in Pasadena. I was living just down the road in woodbine. So the farm wasn't very far from where I raised my boys and stuff. But we put five plants in each place just to see if they could grow. And they survived like a couple of really, really heavy winters. That's impressive. It was, you know, because I thought there's no way. Now his grew a little better out in Pasadena because it's a different microclimate. A little bit sandier soils, warmer. But the ones that I grew here worked really well. So we're kind of like, okay, step one, check, you know, we can make tea plants grow. So step two is start looking for a farm and put those in.

SPEAKER_00 5:41

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 5:41

You just covered a lot of grapes.

SPEAKER_00 5:45

But you know, that speaks to the engineering, that speaks to that entrepreneurial spirit. And where the ideas come from, it's like, yeah, we're having a cup of tea. Can we do this ourselves? Because probably grapes aren't going to work for us. Yeah. I know in my world, I'm coffee till noon, tea till six, wine till bedtime. No, not quite that long. But you know, it's right. It's the what time of day is it? Coffee, tea, or wine? Oh, water's in there. Yes, lots and lots of water. That's where the ideas come from. It's that aha moment. You're sitting there drinking the cup of tea. So I have to ask this what is a tea plant? Is it a tree? Is it a bush? Is it what is it?

SPEAKER_01 6:17

Typically, it's grown as a bush because you are harvesting only new growth on the plant. If you see tea plantations in Sri Lanka, in China, Japan, all the plants are pruned to waist height because you want the new growth to shoot up at that height. So you're walking down the row and picking at waist height as opposed to bending down or reaching up. It's more an ergonomic thing.

SPEAKER_00 6:44

That actually makes a lot of sense.

SPEAKER_01 6:46

Well, they're making it efficient. It's an efficiency thing. So if left unplucked, unpruned, tea plants will grow to be 20, 30 feet tall. Oh my goodness. Yeah. And I think stories are there are ancient tea trees or tea plants in China where they send monkeys up to pick the new growth because humans can't get up there. Who knew?

SPEAKER_00 7:09

I am learning so much. Okay. I had no idea. Did all of this knowledge come to you before or after the adventure with the teas?

SPEAKER_01 7:18

A little of both, most of it after. It's that you go in with eyes wide shut kind of deal and don't know what you don't know. Being new to farming as well as a very unique crop to this area, everything was learning. And in reality, the first five, six years we had plants in the ground, we lost so many of them. Each year we'd put in like 400 seedlings and we'd be lucky if you know 150 to 200 would make it through.

SPEAKER_00 7:46

Oh my goodness. That's a loss rate.

SPEAKER_01 7:48

Yeah. And a lot of it was, again, learning how to irrigate them, learning that deer don't necessarily eat them, but they bed down in the fields and crush them.

SPEAKER_00 7:58

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_01 7:58

You know, so first couple years we didn't have deer fencing and would lose a huge amount of plants because we didn't. So we'd put up deer fencing, learned that we weren't getting enough rain to put in irrigate. You know, it's just that each year there seemed to be kind of a new lesson learned. One year we had a new development that was built kind of in the farm right next to ours. And we used to have like a family of hawks. I called them Mo, Mohawk. He would follow me around when I was on the tractor. He got used to the tractor sound and knew that I was stirring up mice and farments and stuff. So he would follow me around and perch, and the construction and disruption of the development that went in either dishomed or scared away those hawks. So that year or two after, we discovered we had a huge vole problem. And I had put in 400 seedlings and I had a whole row of 100 seedlings that you could just pull out of the ground because the roots were demolished. So we had to adapt to that and figure out ways to keep the voles out.

SPEAKER_00 8:59

Because previously Mo Hawk had Mohawk would take care of them for me.

SPEAKER_01 9:03

But now we have hawks back this year. We've noticed we have a family of, I'm not sure if they're Cooper or Red Shoulder, but you can hear them squawking around.

SPEAKER_00 9:12

So the neighborhood changed and the neighborhood revitalized. Yeah. There we go. Mother Nature is amazing. It is. So you and your significant other decided five plants in Pasadena, five plants in Woodbine. At some point, you bought the farm, which was a good thing. You didn't buy the farm, you bought the farm.

SPEAKER_01 9:28

Yes. We purchased. You purchased the farm. There we go. That's much clearer. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:32

So when you purchased the farm, did you go in knowing that you wanted to turn this into a tea plantation, a tea operation?

SPEAKER_01 9:39

Yes. At least we had that foresight to kind of know what we were looking for. I think we eventually knew we were gonna stick to Howard County. Number one, because Bob had a daughter. She was in third grade at the time and wanted to keep her in Howard County schools. That is one of the benefits of Howard County, is a phenomenal school system.

SPEAKER_00 10:00

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 10:01

The other thing, too, was that Howard County, especially western Howard County, has very acidic soil and tea plants love acid soils.

SPEAKER_00 10:10

I did not know that. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 10:12

We knew that would be a benefit that we could build upon was the natural soils out here. So kind of was looking for farms out in this general area.

SPEAKER_00 10:20

You had spoken about how Pasadena had very sandy soil and a different microcosm than Howard County does. Were you looking for a certain place, a hill, a rise?

SPEAKER_01 10:30

Not necessarily. At that point, we were kind of looking for anything we could afford. It's rare that farms come up for sale. It's rare that farms come up for sale in your price range. We looked for a couple years before we found one. And when we found this one, we realized that it's very hilly. It's got a stream down in a valley. That's the other thing you'll see. Tea plants a lot of times are planted on slopes and hills. And a lot of that is to make sure that they don't sit in wet soil. They like water, but they do not like wet roots. So keeping them up out of soupy water is a must.

SPEAKER_00 11:05

So almost my mind just took this giant leap and went to rosemary and lavender, where they like moist, but they don't like wet feet because they rot. Yes. And the hill would do that. Yeah. Does the shale in this area and the clay in the Howard County area help accommodate the sandy need?

SPEAKER_01 11:25

I would assume so. The nice thing with the clay is it does maintain some of the moisture better than like a sandier soil. And it maintains a lot of the nutrients better that the plants need. But other than that, I think it's just if they're happy, they're happy.

SPEAKER_00 11:41

You found the farm. It was in your price range. That's huge. Yeah. That's almost kismet. Did you move to the farm? Did you have the soil tested before you went to closing? I know. With a crop farm, I think when you test the farm, you test what's there. You know what soil. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 11:57

If you were smart, you would do that. And sometimes you have your eyes wide shut. Exactly. No, we were just like, oh look, we found one. Don't look you give to horse in the mouth. Exactly. And it was one of those things where, in all honesty, it was priced the way it was priced for a reason. It was a mess. It took us years to clean up. And you would go through a field and you could only mow maybe, you know, half an acre at a time because you would have to clean it out. There would be like axe handles out there and barb wire just thrown out. And it was dangerous to take any kind of mower or equipment through until you cleaned it. So we slowly went through and did that. But we were so excited at the time that you don't see those things. You see the potential. And that was probably a good thing.

SPEAKER_00 12:41

There's a really fine line between an entrepreneurial spirit and a dreamer. Yes. Is that where the engineer comes in to make it actuality?

SPEAKER_01 12:50

Yeah, I think so. And this is kind of where my husband and I are a good mix in that he is more that out-of-the-box dreamer. And I am more the implementer of that. He will start, but he bounces to the next project, which is great because it keeps us moving forward. It's a good mix of that entrepreneurial spirit versus dreamer versus practical reality of okay, nice big dream, but what are the steps to get there and actually achieve it and make it come true?

SPEAKER_00 13:25

And that's a really hard step for people starting businesses. So many awesome things. The pottery, the tea, the farm. This was a therapy for you, and you did a major transition in your career. How did you make that transition? Was something in your mind that says, when I grow up, I'm going to be an engineer, and then at this age, I'm going to be a tea grower, and then I'm going to be a potter. And then I'm going to be, and you go mesh them all together, or did it just happen organically?

SPEAKER_01 13:53

It happened organically. Definitely loved my engineering career and loved growing that business. You know, that business started almost out of a necessity. I had two young babies and wanted to stay home with them. So kind of started consulting part-time. And then that morphed and grew into a 12, 15-person company and a couple of partners and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00 14:16

So I have to stop you and ask, what kind of engineering? You are a trained engineer, but which flavor of engineering?

SPEAKER_01 14:23

Electrical. I did secure communications. So all of those military radios and that type of thing are the type of projects that I would work on.

SPEAKER_00 14:33

And that was through a very interesting time period because the 90s from analog to the 2000s to digital would have been a very interesting time.

SPEAKER_01 14:41

Yeah, got in the forefront of some very interesting things there. But running the company absolutely loved it. But you get to a point where you're not doing engineering anymore. You're managing people, you're paying bills, you're doing all those things that you really don't want to do. And I knew too that there's always been this artistic side of me. I've always loved growing things. And so, yeah, why not grow up again and kind of change my life and start incorporating a lot of that stuff in? Pottery was one of those slow incorporations. And everything just kind of happened organically and morphed. Whatever my passion was, I kind of followed and it worked out.

SPEAKER_00 15:24

One of the lines I keep picking up in your story, and in sitting here talking with you, it's not your eyes that are giving you away, it's your hands. I know. I see a lot of myself in that. I have to sit on my hands when I talk because you are a very hands person, and engineering is hands. Business is not hands. Business is very cerebral. Yes. But the art of the wires, the art of the connections, the art of the systems. Yeah. The touch of the pottery, the way it feels. The reason I like the teacups is it fits my hand. It's the feel of it. Yeah. It is not a tool to deliver a liquid, it is a feeling.

SPEAKER_01 16:01

Right. And that's one of the things, and maybe that is, I love anything I do with my hands and dirt earth. And that's where the pottery and the farming and stuff meld and mesh. And you talk about that perfect mug. And as I was doing craft shows, I realized watching people pick up, I would have a mug tree, and people would come pick up mugs that there is definitely a physiology with mugs. And you can tell the instant someone finds that mug that fits just right because their whole face lights up, their whole body changes. And it does. Yeah. And it is. There is something very spiritual about that thing, that element of this just feels good. It's it's almost having a moment in a good way. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 16:51

And oftentimes when you see the coffee, I'm sorry, I know it's a coffee. That's okay. But oftentimes in the coffee commercials, because we don't see tea commercials very often in the United States. No. You see someone holding the mug with a sweater and the steam coming off of it. And they're creating that moment. Yes. And tea does that. And the feel, that physiology, those things that you pick up are your scientists' eye.

SPEAKER_01 17:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:14

And the business acumen that you've developed. And then you said, okay, I'm going to do what I want to do and do it well and take this idea and run with it and see where it goes. I have nothing to lose. Tuition is paid for my children. Yeah. And that freedom has brought you to where you are. But where is that? You're growing rows and rows of tea.

SPEAKER_01 17:36

Yes, we are growing tea. And we have been able to harvest probably for the last four or five years. Now our plants are still young and small. And when you harvest, you know, like I'd mentioned earlier, you're only picking new growth. So even though we have a thousand plants in the ground. A little farm. Yeah. Well, yeah, 44 acres. Not under plant, but we probably have three and a half to five acres. But compared to a normal tea plantation tea farm that is commercially selling tea, they have thousands of acres of tea plants. So we are harvesting. We are getting small batches. So because we also have a shortened growing period here in Maryland, I can fundamentally harvest from the first week of June till like mid-September, as opposed to like in the subtropic areas, you can harvest from April to November. So in order to supply the tea needs of the area, we do import leaves as well, hand blend, hand flavor everything on the farm so that we can do small batches. Everything is fresh, everything is unique. We never buy pre-blended flavors or anything like that because we want our teas to be unique to us and not something that, okay, I can go to Ti Vana or I can go to Harney and Sons and get that blend.

SPEAKER_00 18:54

Tea can be so many different things. Yes. You're talking about a camellia plant. Correct. And that is a species and genus that is unique to tea production, but they also make flowers and other parts of this. What type of tea plant was successful for you? Is that a trademark secret? Did you work with a plant?

SPEAKER_01 19:15

Camellia sinensis is the plant from which you harvest tea leaves. Anything else that you are picking leaves from in brewing is typically called a design as opposed to true tea. And that's kind of that tea snob versus generic. To most Americans, in all honesty, if you put stuff into a cup and brew it, it's called tea. But yes, Camellia sinensis, naturally caffeinated plant. When you process that, all teas come from that same plant. So whether you are processing leaves to a black tea, a green tea, an oolong, a white tea, you pick those same leaves. It just depends on how long you oxidize leaves, the process by which you pressure roll the leaves, that type of thing.

SPEAKER_00 20:00

When you take leaves, I'm going to approach this question as if I am an old farmer and I am cleaning out a fence row. The trees drop leaves every year. You mean you're going to take those leaves from the side of these bushes and they're going to be dried out and that's oxidized and you're going to put them in water and brew them, and that's what I'm drinking? That's not how that works. Or is that how that works?

SPEAKER_01 20:21

That is kind of how it works. Although you're not picking dead leaves. You are picking the nice, fresh, green, new young sprouts off of the top of the plant. White tea is your least processed. So fundamentally, once you pick, you dry and you have a white tea. And it is the leaf.

SPEAKER_00 20:39

It is not the bloom.

SPEAKER_01 20:41

Correct. It is the leaf. A camellia sinensis will flower, but it flowers in the fall. And you get these gorgeous tiny little white flowers. There are some other camellias in the camellia family that flower spring and summer, but and get bigger blooms and stuff, but those are not the senensis, and those are not what you pick tea from.

SPEAKER_00 21:02

So the white tea means unprocessed leaves. Correct.

SPEAKER_01 21:07

Or lightly processed. And then the next level is green, and you process that a little more. You roll it, but you stop oxidation as quickly as possible, and you stop oxidation through a heating process. You heat it slightly, and there are multiple ways you can heat it. You can steam it. Japan tends to steam their green teas. You can pan fire it, stick it in a wok, and just heat it very slightly. China tends to do that. And so you get a little more roasted flavor with their greens. So green is a little more processed. Oolong is kind of the next level of process. And an oolong has an extra step in it where you have to expose it to UV light for half hour to an hour.

SPEAKER_00 21:50

I had no idea.

SPEAKER_01 21:51

Yeah. Now, here in the States, that's very hard to do because of FDA and food regulations and stuff like that. Thus Why we don't do an oolong because you can't let it sit outside and expose itself to the sun. It has to be protected. And then black tea is the most processed. And that's where you fundamentally roll your leaves and let them oxidize. You roll the leaves, let them oxidize, you roll the leaves until you get to that level of flavor or darkness that you want.

SPEAKER_00 22:20

Is there a fermentation step in there?

SPEAKER_01 22:22

There is. Sometimes fermentation and oxidation are you intertwined. I typically say oxidation just because the air is kind of like an apple, an avocado. You let it sit exposed in the air, it turns brown. It's the same with a tea leaf. There is also a fermented tea called pu air, where they take the tea leaves and wrap them and stick them in caves and let them ferment as if it were like a sauerkraut or a kombucha or something, you know. So it does give it yet a different flavor. Again, to get past health regulations here in the States, that's a little harder to do.

SPEAKER_00 23:01

So interesting. So it's all the same plant. So if we wanted to make the wine reference or some other references, it's all the same plant, but wines are different varieties. This is all the same plant.

SPEAKER_01 23:14

Exactly. It's all in the process. Whereas wine, it is part process, but it is part what variety of grape you choose. Now, we did have to do some experimenting with what variety of camellia sinensis that we would put in the ground just because some are a little more cold hardy than others. And so we hooked up with a nursery down in North Carolina called Camellia Forest, who are phenomenal. And, you know, the first year we got kind of an assortment of different cold hardy varieties and found that there was a variety called the Soshi variety that worked best here in Maryland. So we tend to use that variety mostly. But whether I use that variety or a different variety of Camellia sinensis, you're going to get kind of the same flavor if you process it identically. The flavor changes fundamentally. There is a little bit of environments that does change some flavor, but fundamentally it's your process and that's how you tweak and change things.

SPEAKER_00 24:15

In some agriculture, there's a lot of talk about, and I come up with tomatoes. You need sweet soil for tomatoes. The soil makes your tomato taste differently. In the beginning of the talk we were having, you had talked about the sandy soil and the soils. Does the soil make a difference in how the tea leaf tastes?

SPEAKER_01 24:32

I'm sure yes, because I fundamentally believe that everything goes into the flavor. It's the soil, it's the rain, it's the bugs, it's the thing. Yeah, it's the organic matter that is in your plant. Can you identify the difference? That's harder, I think, just because of, again, like with a wine example, you know, if you have two Sauvignon Blancs, they're the same grapes, but may have different flavors. But is it that the soil was different? Is it that the process was tweaked slightly? How humid was it when you were processing, that kind of thing? So there's so many factors that go into it that yes, I do believe that it does impact the flavor, but is it the only thing that impacts the flavor? And is it the predominant impact on flavor? Probably not.

SPEAKER_00 25:22

I love how your eyes light up with this because the process is here. And there's so much to this. So we have white tea, green tea, oolong, and black tea. And then you have workshops on blending these teas. And you take it.

SPEAKER_01 25:37

Yeah. What are those like? Number one, we love educating. Because I'll be honest with you, we will never get rich making tea on our farm. And we will never be commercial scale. It's just not viable here in the US. And we can get into that in a little bit. So to us, it's more about sharing the beauty of the farm, sharing the ritual and experience of tea, because I believe whether it's that casual, hey, that's my first cup of tea in the morning and I'm just chilling for a minute and gathering my thoughts, or if it's very ritualized, think of tea ceremonies and that type of thing in Japan and China and ancient traditions that go behind tea to me are just awesome. So trying to bring some of that to our little town of Woodbine, I love. And the people that come to the farm and the neighbors, they're awesome. Sometimes we'll get people who are like, you know what, I don't really like that kind of tea. I don't like green tea or I don't like cinnamon in my tea. And for our tea blending experiences, they'll sample a few, you know, and I make them sample a wide variety, a floral and a spiced one and a fruity one and a plain one. Then they go and they just play and throw ingredients in and then brew it and see if they like it and then tweak it just to watch the creativity, is some of it. It is fun.

SPEAKER_00 27:02

It personalizes to your taste and to your mood and to the time of day. Exactly. I think about high tea. Right. And the rituals around high tea. The first time I tasted high tea, I thought, that's really good, but that's not what I grew up with because what I grew up with was nest tea. Yes. Or Lipton.

unknown 27:22

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 27:23

And I thought, oh my goodness. And then as I became more traveled and tasted many different things, I thought I always liked nest tea because that's what I was trained to like. Exactly. And it was so cool because I don't know really exactly how they did it, but that processing was just so awesome to watch it go into solution.

SPEAKER_01 27:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:41

But the art of making tea, the art of blending your tea, and the art of the teapot and the science of the teapot all comes together on your farm. It does. You talked a little bit about the parts and the pieces that need to fit together in an exact science to make a teapot functional. And then with the ritual of the tea and the different tea ceremonies, there's so many different shapes of teapots. Does that fit with the tea itself? Is this process the temperature of the water? Is there a rhythm to the shape of the teapot and the type of tea?

SPEAKER_01 28:19

I haven't really thought about the shape fundamentally of the teapot and what that changes. For me, I love coming up with unique and whimsical teapots. So some of them work well, some of them, eh, not so much. But you had touched on temperatures of tea and that type of thing. And I'll be honest, initially, I thought that was all just kind of a myth in Wives Tale. Because I'll be honest, we boil our water and let it steep. We don't time it. And that's just how my husband and I like our tea. My husband did an experiment to truly put to rest because we have a kettle that has all of the little temperatures, you know, green tea you brew at this temperature, and oolong you brew at this temperature. And we always hit the highest temperature, and that's it. And you can tell because that button, the numbers are rubbed off.

SPEAKER_00 29:07

But I think I have that very one at home, actually. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 29:11

He did this experiment where he brewed green teas at various temperatures and tasted, and brewed black teas at various temperatures and tasted. And there truly is a difference.

SPEAKER_00 29:21

Interesting.

SPEAKER_01 29:22

Yeah. Which I'll be honest, surprised the heck out of me. But some of that too is I don't have time, in all honesty. There's a practical side here. Exactly. You know, I want my tea and I want it now. If you like tea at a certain temperature and brew to 15 minutes and whatever, then that's fine.

SPEAKER_00 29:41

That becomes your ritual.

SPEAKER_01 29:42

Exactly. To me, there's no right or wrong. I'll have people ask, well, what is the appropriate time to brew? And what is the appropriate temperature to brew? And it's like, well, whatever you like. Because different people like different things. And I can say brew this for five minutes, and someone will be like, Oh my gosh, that is just way too strong for me. And I can say brew it at two minutes, and they're like, Well, I'm drinking water. It's all kind of a personal taste.

SPEAKER_00 30:06

But the water could make a difference, and we'll go down that well a different day. The temperature can make a difference. But what is the amount of tea? Does that make a difference?

SPEAKER_01 30:16

It can, but I always tell people to start with for a cup, anywhere between like eight to sixteen ounces. Use a teaspoon and then kind of go from there. If brewing with one teaspoon for any given amount of time is too strong, back off. If it's too weak, up it just a little bit. Because I've had people that will throw like a tablespoon of tea to brew one cup, and that's just in essence a waste of tea leaves.

SPEAKER_00 30:42

So we've had the pot, we've made the cup, we've used the water, we've had the temperature, we have the tea. And now what do we add? Is it milk? Is it sugar? Is it honey? Is it lemon? Is it nothing?

SPEAKER_01 30:55

For me, it is artificial sweetener because I have issues with sugar. And if I'm doing a spiced tea like a chai, a little bit of milk. My husband is pure honey. I mean, we have bees on our farm too. And I think it's fundamentally to hit his honey habit. Everybody has a thing. I know. But that goes back to what it is your personal taste. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 31:15

What it is you like.

SPEAKER_01 31:16

And in essence, he and I have very, very different tastes in tea. He does not like flavored teas. He's a purist. He likes pure black tea. He does not like green teas. He will occasionally, there's a couple of herbals that I blend that he likes, but the wildest kind of out there flavor is an Earl Grey to him.

SPEAKER_00 31:35

To a good old bergamot.

SPEAKER_01 31:36

Yes. Whereas I throw anything in there because I like the chives, I like the fruity flavors, I like greens, I like whites, I like blacks. I don't think I've met a tea that I haven't liked, in all honesty.

SPEAKER_00 31:48

So you have no box for the tea, and he has no box for the ideas.

SPEAKER_01 31:52

Exactly. It's a great match. It is. It is a perfect match.

SPEAKER_00 31:56

I like that. If we want to come and see the Heron Meadow Farm and experience everything it has to offer the pottery, the tea, the crochet, the experience of the farm. How do we find you?

SPEAKER_01 32:09

We now have a new website to kind of consolidate everything. So hit heronsmeadowfarm.com or you can look us up on Facebook or Instagram. The farm stores open Fridays from noon to five and Saturdays from 10 to 3 during the year or by appointment. We don't open more just because I'm busy on the farm, but I am around. So I've had people call with a tea emergency and say, hey, I need, you know, I'm out of my fill in the blank and need some. Or I've got guests coming and I want to share your tea with them. That's how to find us.

SPEAKER_00 32:42

I think it's wonderful. And I am so very excited that you've beat the odds. I know. You have a thousand tea plants growing in woodvine, Maryland. I know. That should not be possible. I know, I know. But you've beat the odds. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 32:57

Well, and we're still, you know, we're still beating odds and we're still experimenting and trying regenerative practices in the soil. And each year we kind of are trying something new and different to bring life back to a farm that didn't have much life when we bought it.

SPEAKER_00 33:14

I love that. Bringing the life tea back to everyone. Lori from BLT's Mud Pies and Herons Meadow Farm. Thank you for coming away from the farm and joining us to talk about it. No, this was fun. I hope the connections we've raised today stay with you as you engage your community through critters, companions, commerce, and agriculture. Join me again next week. We'll make some more connections.

SPEAKER_01 33:37

This program is a production of Raising Connections Media Company, hosted and produced by Rashan Mayer, coordinated by Beverly McElroy, and edited and mixed by Robin Temple.