tea

California: The State That Really Grows It All—Even Tea

By Mikenzi Meyers, Associate Editor

New opportunities for California Farmers are on the rise. Jeff Dahlberg, director of the Kearney Ag Research and Extension Center in Parlier, recently gave California Ag Today insight into a new project on growing tea in the state.

“The folks up at Davis have been able to propagate enough tea to get us at least half an acre or a bit more planted, so we’re trying to get that planted this fall,” he explained.

However, this isn’t the first time the idea of growing tea has been introduced to California. In fact, Dahlberg noted that Richard Nixon actually traveled to China to look into bringing it back to the states. Although the idea didn’t progress much further, plants were saved, and the project is being brought back to life.

Dahlberg said that tea has a lot of potential as a high-value specialty crop for those looking to grow it.

“There are a lot of really, really interesting things coming down,” he promised.

For more information on the Global Tea Initiative, visit GlobalTea.UCDavis.Edu.

For more information on the Kearney Ag Research and Extension Center, visit their website at: kare.ucanr.edu