5 things we learned starting a tea farm.

I recently got asked to share my thoughts on what we have learned from starting a tea farm business. Below are 5 learnings that stood out for us, starting The Great Mississippi Tea Farm.

1 - Be prepared to ride it out. Whether it is with equipment investments or just starting your first plantings, you have to be ready to ride it out for as much as ten years. When we planted our first 30,000 tea plants we lost all but 1000. That 1000, then took 6 years before it became able to produce any tea for sale. If you buy equipment, it is incredibly expensive and it may take 10 years before you get a return on that investment. You have to be prepared to see nothing back for up to 10 years.

2 - Expect the unexpected. I used to think when I owned a restaurant that you had to be prepared for the unexpected. That was nothing compared to a farm. There are so many moving parts. Weather impacts. Federal and state requirements. Bugs. Plant Disease. Inability to get staff, no one really wants to work on a farm these days. Equipment fails, just the other day our pruner broke and we had to put on our Engineering hats and fix the trolly that holds it up so we could finish pruning. There is always something that comes out of left field and you just have to learn to roll with the unexpected. Don’t sweat it, just roll with it.

3 - Know when you're out of your league. Know your strengths and your weaknesses. It has been pointed out that I am an organizer of strengths. I bring in people through my network to bring their knowledge to our business. We had no idea about growing tea in the beginning. We traveled to India, Nepal, China and Scotland to gain knowledge in tea. We hired consultants to share their expertise. We are not afraid to bring in someone to teach us what we don’t know.

4 - You have to be all in.  A lot of people may look at our tea plants and think once it's all in the ground it's easy. It is like the saying “a duck looks calm on the water, but underneath it’s feet are paddling constantly’. That’s our farm. From April until the end of December there is always something on the go and you have to go all in with it. There is no half in or you can’t afford to operate. You are married to it. This can be incredibly impacting. In fact, at one time it put a great strain on our marriage. We made it obviously, but this is not something that you can do half hearted. 

5 - It is not just planting, it’s paperwork. This I think will come as one of the biggest shockers to someone wanting to get into farming. You are going to become the president of an international record keeping society. From fertilizers, food safety plans, cleaning logs to sick policies. Typically, one might get into farming as they enjoy growing stuff and field work. But being an accredited farm means tracking and paperwork. 

To bring tea to the USA is definitely not easy and there is a lot people don’t see. We do not have access to cheap labor. We are subject to way more regulations (which is a good thing to ensure a quality and safe product for our customers). Heck, we didn’t even talk about processing which is another side to the whole business. Essentially, it is not a matter of plant it and forget it. There is so much more to farming and as I said in point 4, you have to be all in.

We hope you find these 5 key things helpful in your own journey as you explore your options for farming. We encourage you to visit many farms before taking the plunge and getting as much insight as possible. The tea industry is awesome, full of opportunity but certainly one that will take a great deal of hard work.

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