麻豆约拍

After Lucy George took over the family fruit farm in the Vale of Glamorgan, she realised the business wasn鈥檛 really her 鈥榗up of tea鈥�, so she decided to go into tea production instead. Asked where the idea came from, Lucy says 鈥淚鈥檓 think I鈥檓 still trying to figure that out!" She adds: 鈥淥ne thing that really drove me was trying to find a product we could actually sell year round to have some more stability to the farm income.鈥� Now, ten years on, she has a thriving business.

In this programme, Mariclare Carey-Jones visits Lucy鈥檚 farm to find out what it takes to grow tea in the Welsh countryside and what impact the Welsh weather has on the crop. 鈥淪ome plants will tolerate the conditions, some will struggle, so it's really a numbers game of planting more and more tea plants and eventually ending up with plants that are actually enjoying the conditions here in Wales鈥� Lucy tells Mariclare.

Mariclare also joins Lucy in the on-site tea factory where the leaves are processed into a variety of teas. How do artisan producers like Lucy compete with the big tea companies? Leaves that don鈥檛 make the grade to sell as tea are used to make another range of drinks instead.

Produced and presented by Mariclare Carey-Jones