This week I read an article in The Japan Times about a traditional method of growing tea that is practiced in Shizuoka prefecture known as chagusaba. The process involves growing silver grass (a weed) and sasa (ground cover bamboo) to use as a mulch between rows of tea bushes. The grasses are dried, then composted, before eventually being applied to the fields, the mulch providing natural nutrients for the bushes as well as insulation against the cold in the winter, thus protecting the roots. It also helps to increase water retention in the soil and increase biodiversity. Basically, it is a type of organic farming, practiced only in Shizuoka by a dwindling number of farmers (it is very labor intensive, much more so than farming with chemicals and industrial fertilizers). Although there is no measurable proof, the process is believed by its practitioners to produce tea that is superior in flavor to conventionally farmed tea.
Reading about chagusaba tea reminded me a lot of how bio-dynamic wine is made. As with the tea, raising bio-dynamic wine grapes starts with composting between rows of grapes and applying solutions made from various plants and “weeds.” And as with chagusaba tea, there is no measurable benefit to the wine that is made, although practitioners swear that it does make for much better wine; that is why so many wine makers are currently going biodynamic There are other steps involved as well, steps some have referred to as “voodoo,” including burying a cow horn in the ground, things not used in growing tea.
For more on chagusaba: https://www.chagusaba.jp/english/02/index.html