Bigelow Charleston Tea Garden and Plantation

We took the tour, riding on a trolley with our guide, who also used a recorded narration.

Our guide.

Tea bushes can live hundreds of years, and establish a vigorous root system. Beginning in spring, new shoots are harvested from the bushes, by a machine that straddles the rows of bushes.

This is the experimental greenhouse, where new varieties are rooted. Some herbs are grown here as well, including bergamot, for Earl Gray Tea.

There is a system of ponds and channels with pumps for irrigation. The less established bushes have drip irrigation lines watering them.

This an historic tea picking machine, dating to the 1960s. A current John Deere model was parked nearby.

Green tea is harvested, crushed, and dried. Oolong and black tea are crushed, wet, incubated for 30 - 60 minutes wet, then dried. White tea is made from blossoms and adjacent small leaves.

Lunch stop at The Tatooed Moose, a fun place!

Fountain with sculptures at Marion Square Park

Lunch at Hyman's Seafood - Aarons Deli, a local institution.

A horse drawn tour buggy, one of many in historic downtown Charleston. This is in front of Dock Street Theater, where we just attended a Spoleto Festival Chamber Music Concert.