News from the Farm – September 2023

The Western Cape is experiencing its most unusual September in history and continuing rain and flooding has impacted most farming communities. Repairs are hardly completed when we are hit by another drench of rain.

Newly planted Rooibos seedlings thrive on regular nourishing rain and hot, sunny days – which has been rather scarce – so the percentage of seedlings that have successfully transplanted are not as high as previous years but those that have persevered in the cold are showing promise, however, to date there has been very little growth.

Existing tea fields are still in the process of being cleared of weeds and invader plants. This has been slowed down by wet conditions and progress is slow.

A week of sunny weather lies ahead of us so we are still expecting a season of good growth as sunshine is a great turnaround factor in the life of a tea bush!