There are a lot of things on my ‘to do’ list here in
Kenya. I want to go to Samburu, I want
to see the elephants at Amboseli, I want to see Mt Kenya on a clear day, I want
to go to Brown’s Cheese Factory, I want to go to the top of the Kenyatta
International Conference Centre in the CBD for a view of the city, I want to go
to Kitengela Glass Factory, I want to go to the Karen Blixen Museum and the
list goes on. One of the excursions I
wanted to do was visit a tea farm and my great friend Sarah and I decided that
we would cross one of the ‘must do’s’ off my list this week.
Nairobi traffic can be quite daunting at the best of
times and it is always nice to get out of the city and out into the country to
get away from the craziness chaos of the big smoke. It really is a very beautiful and scenic
drive out to Limuru, and as it happens it is also the same road that we use to
get to The Nest of older children. The
roads can still be a challenge with certain sections having some large
potholes, but all in all it is quite a pleasant drive. We had to be at the tea plantation by 11am,
so leaving at 10.15am on a Friday, gave us plenty of time to get out there with
a few minutes to spare. Kiambethu Tea Farm
is located in Limuru and provides a tranquil insight in the life of a settler
farm. When we arrived it was like taking
a breath of fresh air literally. The
farm is located at an altitude of 7000 feet above sea level and has lush acres
of tea plantations that seem to vanish in the horizon. The lawn lush and green and we were greeted
by 2 of the resident dogs and Julius who would later be out guide for the
forest walk. If you are a Twitcher (bird
watcher) then this place will keep you occupied for hours as the birds flocked
to the plants, flowers and trees on the property. Two English families, Mitchell &
McDonnell in the early 1900's, built the Estate. These families are said to be
the first to have ventured into the tea business.
As we waited for the other guests to arrive, we were
served a fresh brew of tea and freshly baked cookies and a chance to talk to
Fiona who is the current owner of the property that has been passed through the
family since it was built in 1910 and has been home to four generations. The house is the original dwelling and has
all the history of past generations on mantles and the walls. It was like walking through my Nana’s house,
seeing black and white photos from long ago-I love looking at stuff like
that. Personal histories of people you
know and those you don’t, and what type of life they lived back in the ‘old’
days. The other guests arrived (40
minutes late) and then Fiona then sat down with us in the living room and gave
us a lecture on the area and about the production of tea and the experience of
her as a child growing up in the house.
It was a very interesting insight to the history of her family and the
rea ‘business’.
The African tea trade as we know it, was started by one
little known family in Kenya – the McDonells. Without them, Kenya may
never have become the biggest exporter of tea in the world and breakfast tea
would not have the richness of colour and flavour that we now know. Their
story shows not only the importance of tea to families, but also the importance
of a family to tea. Given the role that African tea plays in many famous
black tea blends, it is surprising that tea didn’t reach Africa until the
20th century. The first tea bushes were planted in Kenya in 1903,
simply for ornamental purposes by G.W.L. Caine. Caine, like so many
others, failed to see the opportunity to grow tea commercially in Africa.
It was several decades that an inventive Scot saw the agricultural potential of
the camellia leaf. Arnold Butler
McDonell, better known as AB, purchased 350 acres from the British government
in 1904, moving to Kenya to establish his own farm – Kiambethu. He had dreams of growing crops on the lush
land, but at 7,200ft all the crops that he tried to grow, failed. Coffee, corn
and flax were all wilted, and his dream of farming seemed to be becoming a
living nightmare. After more than ten
years of disappointment, however, a friend visited AB from India, bringing a
few tea samplings of Camellia Sinensis assamica with him as a gift. With
nothing to lose, AB immediately took the opportunity and decided to experiment
with the plant on his land holding. He planted 20 acres in 1918 and to
his delight the bushes thrived. In 1926 he became the first commercial
tea producer in the history of Africa, establishing an industry that today is
worth more than $1 billion.
As the initial tea maverick of Kenya, AB’s early years of
tea production were spent trying to establish the ways and means to produce and
sell his tea. With no tea factory in the area, McDonell was forced to process
all of the tea on the farm itself, transporting it personally by train to
Nairobi’s Bazaar Street, where he sold his finished product directly to
traders. His success in producing and
processing the world’s first African tea was accompanied by the development of
a burgeoning family. His four daughters were born on the Kiambethu
Farm and when it came time to educate them, AB built a girl’s school 100 metres
from the farm gate for their needs. His daughter, Evelyn Mitchell, hated being
forced to board at the school, but later told her own daughter that she found
comfort in being able to see her bedroom windows from the class room. The
school still stands today, along with All Saints Church, Limuru which AB also
designed and built.
AB lived to be 98 and never left Kiambethu. It was
his daughter, Evelyn, who took over the farm after his retirement and
introduced guided tours for tourists in the 1960s. She in turn, passed
the farm onto her daughter, Fiona Vernon, who had insisted in her youth that
she would never run tea tours. Luckily for African tea lovers, when
Fiona’s mother sadly passed away in 1998, she was left with a pre-booking for a
group and she was forced to guide the tour. The rest, as they say, is
history……….This pioneering family started the Kenyan tea industry, and their
passion has created a unique farm that still produces tea to this day.
Whilst the family have sold most of the original 350 acres, 35 acres remain
with them and 2 acres are devoted to tea. More importantly, Fiona
continues to share the knowledge that has been passed down through the
generations to all tea lovers who visit Kiambethu, and the legacy of her
grandfather remains.
Tea needs good rainfall, which is plenty in the region so
tea is picked all year round. After the
tea is picked, they are sent to the factories to be processed and sold to local
and export markets. Kenya is the fourth-largest producer of tea
worldwide, and is the only country in Africa to produce a substantial amount of
tea for the world market. Unlike India and Sri Lanka, where most tea
is grown on large plantations, 90% of tea in Kenya is grown on farming
operations of 1 acre or less. Tea is
central to Kenya's economy; tea exports represent 26% of total export earnings
and about 4% of GDP. Tea is ranked as
the third major foreign exchange earner, behind tourism and horticulture.
In Kenya there are both large plantations and what are
called smallholdings and is the largest producers of tea in Africa, and it has
quadrupled its exports over the last decade. Tea is also one of the most
important drinks in the country itself. Currently,
Kenya prides itself as one of the world's leading black Tea producers. Even though it is a major player in the
global market, Kenya is less well known as a source of tea in the United
States. Most of the tea produced in Kenya is bulk black tea used in blends.
The task of managing the small scale holder lies with the
Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA). Currently the KTDA has 62 tea factories
serving over 500,000 small scale farmers cultivating over 100,000 ha. Of all
tea produced in Kenya, KTDA members produce over 60% while the rest is produced
by large scale producers. Kenya is a major producer of the best tea in the world. Tea is grown in the
highlands where there is adequate rainfall and low temperatures. The tea industry is divided between small farms and large
estates. The small – scale sector, with more than 260,000 farmers, is
controlled by the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA). The estates, consisting of 60-75 private
companies, operate their own factories. Smallholder tea production started in 1969,
and produces more tea than large scale farmers.
KTDA manages all smallholding tea factories and is the largest single
producer in the world. The industry supports
directly and indirectly approximately five million people, making it one of the
leading sources of livelihoods in Kenya. Kenya tea is free of pests or
diseases, so the farms are not sprayed with any chemical except fertiliser
application to replenish soil nutrients.
There are about 50 varieties of tea in Kenya, which are
developed to suit the seven growing regions. Over 90 per cent of Kenya’s tea is
handpicked. Only the finest top two leaves and a bud are used for tea
production and this contributes to the excellent aroma in the tea cup. Cultivation is either on small holdings or
plantations. The land is first cleared. Tea seedlings or cuttings are raised
for about 18 months in a nursery and when they attain a height of 3’0 cm, they
are transplanted. Tea is usually planted in contoured rows 1.5 m apart.
Weeding, manuring and pruning are carried out at regular intervals. The first
picking occurs between 2-4 years after planting the crop, but full bearing is
reached after five years. Picking is carried out fortnightly for approximately a
century before being uprooted and new plants grown. Some of the tea is consumed locally while a
huge amount is sold on the international market. The leading consumers of
Kenyan tea are countries that make up the European Union such as Britain,
France, Germany and the Netherlands and other major destinations include the
Middle East in countries such as Afghanistan, Iran and Saudi Arabia. Some
exports are also made to African countries especially COMESA members such as
Egypt and Sudan.
It was an interesting talk and after Fiona had finished
and our questions answered we got to go for a 30 minute walk past some of the
tea plantations and into the local forest.
Accompanied by a resident Kenyan guide, Julius, we took a short walk
into the small indigenous forest and learnt about the plants and how they were
used traditionally. It always amazes me
the uses that are found within the local trees and how did the locals know the
properties of the plant/tree and to which one to use for each ailment? We made our way back to the farm house for
what was a beautiful silver service lunch of soup for starter and schnitzel
beef, sweet potato bake, salad (which had tree tomatoes that I have never
tasted before), beans, carrots and mashed potato. With unlimited beverages ( I was driving so 2
glasses of white wine) and ice-cream, lemon tart, cream and pears to round off
lunch it was an AMAZING home cooked meal!!!!
As we were finishing our dessert the resident Colobus monkeys came down
for a little visit. I love these gentle
species of the monkey kingdom. My first experience
was feeding a large Colobus monkey when I was in Ethiopia. We coaxed the animal down from the trees and
hand fed him some dry biscuits which he took gently from my hand as he held my
thumb with his hand. It was an
incredible experience and to see some today really just topped off what was a
great afternoon. We fed them some
bananas and we were lucky enough to see a small baby as well!! There were also some Hot Dogger (Sausage dog)
puppies that we go to have a nurse of and were just so so sweet. It was nice to hear that Fiona would be
keeping one of the puppies at the farm and the other one would be going next
door so not venturing too far from mum.
It was nearly 3pm and time to hit the road. Sarah and I had seen a sign to some
waterfalls on our way in and we had enquired with Julius if my little car would
make it down the track or would we need a 4WD and he said as there hadn’t been
much rain the last few days Suzy Blue would be just fine and it was only a 10
minute journey to get there. So with a
payment of 2500KSH for the afternoon (which included lunch) and 2 boxes of tea
bags (200KSH) and a wave goodbye we were on the road to see us some
waterfalls. We found the falls no problem;
well where we had to park, which happened to be located onto a small
hotel. And as a lot of things in this
world, nothing is for free and we had to pay 300KSH (4.50AUD) each for the privilege,
we walked downhill for about 7 minutes to see what would be a small waterfall
that was bursting with water and was beautiful.
We didn’t stay long as we had to get back to the city, but we did manage
to take a few minutes once we got back to the top carpark to appreciate the
breathtaking green lush view of the surrounding tea plantations.
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