Tea, Mud and Hope

A really interesting discussion about female leadership in small business, about working in fine tea, about actively supporting wellbeing in all of us. Erica is a wonderful person working in tea and owner of Eteaket. Its wonderful and humble to know that people like Erica exist and that we have her as part of our tea world. I have huge respect for her work, promoting fine and quality teas and supporting wellbeing in everyone with her Thrive in Three workshops. This conversation gives us all a little glimpse into the personal world of Erica Moore. Thank you so much for sharing and giving us your time Erica. Was wonderful to do this together. :)

A wonderful opportunity to chat with Agha, the creator of Prague Tea Fest which has been organised for the first time this year, this week in Prague 25th to 26th February 2023. We hear all about it, Agha's plans and excitement and hopes for this new and exciting tea event. We hear about tea people arriving from all over Europe, we chat a bit about tea travel and the European tea growing movement. Thank you Agha, was lovely to spend this time together and hear about your exciting new tea event. See you in a few days :)

A most wonderful new episode with Professor Damiani on the fascinating topic of tea and biochemistry. Liz is Professor of biochemistry at the University of Politecnica delle Marche in Ancona, Italy and has more recently turned her focus and attention to studying the biochemistry of tea and the camellia sinensis plant. Liz is especially interested in the types of and amount of antioxidants linked to types of tea and preparation of tea. For example, isn't it fascinating that her research so far indicate that white tea cold brewed contains the highest amount of antioxidants? Does this mean, we wonder, that the most health benefit possibly comes from enjoying teas that are least processed and cold brewed? So interesting and Liz and her team are on a journey to find out more, also now studying the newly emerging teas grown in European soils. We hope you enjoy this episode. many many well wishes and hope you are enjoying some great teas this winter. :) As always get in touch with comments and suggestions, we enjoy hearing from you. Get in touch via email on monica@windyhollowfarm.co.uk or via my instagram windyhollowfarm_Many well wishes and take care Monica :)    

Another very special episode, I have the great pleasure to chat with my tea friend Sooz about her work as Award winning tea educator. I love that Sooz is so passionate about positive change, mental health and creating learning opportunities for people from marginalised groups in our societies. We hear about her work on scholarships for BIPOC practitioners and her views about tea education having the potential to being much more than scholastic learning. Absolutely fascinating, thank you so much Sooz for joining me for this episode. I loved listening to you and found it very stimulating. It made me think of my own tea work too. (PS of course we also chatted wild tea in Vietnam and nibbling on tea leaves :)

Oh what a pleasure it is to chat with Tim about his tea life and tea culture across the world. We have the pleasure to hear about the new book he is writing, his tea work at Postcardteas, the European Tea Growing movement, climate change and tea growing, tea processing, tisanes, tea ceramics and much more. I have so much respect for Tim and his team and their wonderful work on provenance in tea and supporting fair pay for people working in tea. Thank you so much Tim for being a wonderful guest :) See you soon over some fine tea.

Oh what another tea treat. In this episode I have the pleasure to talk with Prof George van Driem about his wonderful book The Tale of Tea. We chat about camellia sinensis the plant and where it originated, about excavations of 1000 year old tea leaves, pesticides, climate change, earl grey tea and much much more. His book has 900 pages of dense and layered tea knowledge and is a pleasure to read. I love how it feels like many tiny jigsaw pieces coming together :) Thank you George for sharing your work with us.

Welcome to another episode of Tea, Mud and Hope. Our conversation today is with the wonderful Shiloh Gastello, talented ceramic artist, tea enthusiast and educator. During his workshops, Shiloh invites us to go on a somatic awareness journey with tea and to consider our own wellbeing and self development. Shiloh has a wonderful way to show us to slow down and to feel a link to nature, creativity and the very rich tea culture existing at present and throughout the past. Thank you so much for what you do Shiloh. It was wonderful to hear all about it :) To get in touch with Shiloh, you can contact him via instagram on nuev_orden

Another real treat, in this episode I have the pleasure to chat with Lydia Gautier, well known tea book writer, professional in tea sourcing and passionate about fine tea. We chat about how she selects fine teas and about her travels to many tea areas across the world. We hear about her fascinating project in North Vietnam to help give teas produced in specific wild tea areas there, a protected name - Snow Shan Tea. Wonderful to hear. Lydia then also tells us about her tea book writing, we discuss climate change and the tea world and the tea awards she is involved in. Very excitedly for me we finish off by hearing about what goes on in her tea lab :) Thank you so much Lydia for doing this in English - your English is miles better than my French :) You can get in touch with Lydia via her website lydiagautier.com and instagram on lydiagautier.thes.tisanes Enjoy :)

Today's chat with Mona takes us to dreaming about tea travel and volunteering on tea farms. Mona shares her tea volunteering experiences on a White Tea Farm in China with us and its wonderful to hear about the opportunities and learning possible through volunteering. Hopefully us tea geeks will be able to explore tea gardens across the world again in the not-so-distant future. Thank you so much Mona for sharing your experiences with us, it was fun and inspiring to hear all about it.

Part 1 of a two parter on Climate change and biodiversity in tea growing and tea enjoyment. This first part is a real treat. I have the pleasure of chatting with Jeff Fuchs who we all know from his award winning tea documentary The Tea Explorer. We chat all things tea, luscious tea forests, tea people, tea spaces and traditional tea knowledge. We are all connected to each other, the natural world and a changing climate. Maybe we can all find solutions together.

What a treat to chat with Wenzhuo :) Based in Germany her life is all about tea. Her work gives us insight into tea history, tea art and the wonderful music played during traditional tea ceremony in China. Its fascinating to hear from her about Zhu Quan who lived about 600 years ago in China and wrote a tea manual which hugely influenced tea culture at the time. Wenzhuo translated this book into English and its wonderful to get a look into that time and how tea was enjoyed then. We also hear from Wenzhuo about her plans to grow tea in Germany and I cannot wait to visit her tea garden and make some teas with her :)

Oh what a treat to get this insight into tea growing and making in Canada. In this episode we hear from Victor Vesely from Westholme tea. Victor is a wonderfully passionate tea maker on Vancouver Island where he has grown tea for the last 10 years. I absolutely love his organic, singleestate teas reflecting the Canadian terroir. Enjoy his story :) and if you would like to get in touch with Victor he is on Instagram on canadian.tea.maker and westholme_tea together with his talented partner Margit who creates beautiful ceramics.

A wonderful chat with Andy about his tea life in Taiwan. Andy is an American but has now spent most of his adult life in beautiful Taiwan working with tea. So interesting to hear about the variety of traditional and newer teas being made and enjoyed there. We chat about different tea areas in Taiwan and tea processing. We cover different oolongs and other teas, wild tea trees, organic and other chemical free teas. Its also wonderful to hear about the welcoming tea culture existing in Taiwan and we cover challenges tea makers face in more recent years including climate change and tea pricing. We could have spent all day! Have to continue our Taiwan tea chat some other day. :)

In this episode we hear from Mr Eighty Degrees about his gorgeous tea magazine, how he started and his hopes for the future. We chat about Martin's tea travels to Japan, China and the wonderful biodynamic tea garden in Portugal owned by Nina Gruntkowski. We also hear about the challenges during lockdown and about creativity. We finish off with a laugh when I suggest that his tea mag could do with an agony aunt page :) Enjoy

In this episode I am chatting with Alex from Postcardteas in London about everything tea. Tea making and selling during lockdown, his important role in the Postcardteas team, tea travel, tea growing across Europe and more..... Enjoy :)

This episode introduces various tea growing approaches which may make our growing spaces more robust in the face of climate change. Included are organic, biodynamic, natural growing, agroforestry, wild tea and more. Climate change has arrived and what are we going to do about it? (This article was printed as a shortened version in the beautiful Eighty Degrees Tea Magazine Issue 3) :)

Here is a little bit of info about Maksym. Born in Eastern Ukraine, Maksym lived in Russia for a number of years where he developed his love for tea. Since 1991, he now lives in the Ukraine. His educational background is chemistry with a speciality of water and soil analysis. Since 2004 Maksym has been actively involved in the tea project teatips.ru an online tea info portal. Over the last couple of years Maksym has also become a national judge of the Tea Master Cup in Ukraine, exciting!His main interest is tea history and growing tea in northern regions of the world. Enjoy :)

A wonderful tea chat with Denis who chairs the Association Tea Grown in Europe. We hear from Denis about wonderful tea projects across Europe, new and established tea gardens and the excitement of many European single estate teas becoming more available to tea drinkers over the next few years. We also chat climate change and how this may affect tea growing. Hope you enjoy this episode :)

Fine teas in Paris. This episode is about exploring the tea scene in the gorgeous city of Paris. I am popping into tea houses and tea shops and sharing with you some of the wonderful tea experiences Paris has to offer.

Welcome to out tea travel episode where Monica chats with the wonderful Mar about her travel tea adventures in China, Sri Lanka, Japan and South Korea and reveals her favourite tea house : )

Setting the scene