It is a chilly October day but as Lucy George stands on her farm just seven miles from Cardiff the crop in front of her defies all usual expectations.
It’s tea. Yes, the drinking tea. The stuff that grows in hot climates such as Darjeeling or Sri Lanka.
But the Peterston Tea Estate in Peterston-super-Ely in the Vale of Glamorgan – in climate if nothing else – is a million miles from Darjeeling.
It’s the brainchild of 39-year-old Ms George, who took over a fruit farm from her parents, which had diversified into ice cream.
But it was in 2014, when Ms George was considering altering her work-life balance that she searched for new business opportunities.
She said: “I was desperately trying to find a crop you could grow, where you could work on the farm and be outdoors – something that was slightly novel but also ticked all the boxes for us as far as being more of a year-round crop.
“After counting out most vegetables it came down to growing tea.
“I thought about it one day, looked it up that evening on Google and saw it was possible.
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“There was one plantation in Cornwall and there was one starting in Scotland – and that was it!”
From that Google search five years ago Ms George now has her first tea crop poised for launch on her website and to hit the shelves of the most discerning niche stores.
Ms George’s learning curve has not just been steep – it’s been Everest-like. As Wales’ first tea plantation boss she had few farmers to speak to who could hand down their knowledge.
An expert called Nigel Mellican, who works as a tea consultant, helped her with her first steps at her Wild Fig farm.
He managed to source some tea seed, and the enterprise was born – with 180 seeds.
As the seeds grew well, Ms George expanded the following winter to plant thousands more, and she now has more than 20,000 plants in seed beds, the nursery, in the ground, or in polytunnels outside on around five acres of land.
Eventually each tea bush will make around two grams of dried tea upwards per year – or a tea bag’s worth (although Peterston will only sell loose tea).
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Ms George also produces another type of tea, with a working title of Welsh Gold, which is between an Oolong and a black tea, and is a much lighter and more aromatic tea.
Ask Ms Geroge to divulge her technique, though, and she remains tight-lipped. That’s her unique style and what makes Peterston tea different.
This year she has produced around two to three kilos of black tea and about 380g of Welsh Gold.
While she is still toying with the final packaging, and the amount of tea in each, each packet is expected to contain around 12g – with each pot of tea allowing several brewings.
Ms George expects each kilo to yield about £1,200 to £1,500.
Overall, the process has been a challenging but exciting one for Ms George.
She says: “I have no regrets. It’s definitely been a challenge, but I am only just starting to sense the scale of the learning curve ahead.
“It’s been a challenge to learn everything, then learning how to pack it correctly, then learning to process it is a different ball game again.”
If you want to try the fruits of Ms George’s labour, check www.peterstontea.com for availability.
It will be going on sale in limited supply – most likely from November 8 onwards.