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​Kiugu uses raised seedling beds to establish root balls on the saplings, so they can be replanted elsewhere.

They used to cut down all the trees for fuel,” he says, but now they are all planting. “My neighbours have been copying what we have been doing. He joined the project so he could earn money from his trees. He started farming here in 1982, and has planted thousands of trees since. “When they grow up, I can sell them and get money.” Kiugu also produces honey from beehives attached to the trees on his plot. “Generally I plant the trees because they can bring more rain,” he says. Planting trees and reducing deforestation also protects the quality of the land that the farmers rely on for growing tea and the other crops they depend on for produce. More importantly, the trees are helping Kenya combat climate change, which poses a real challenge to the tea-growing industry there. 165mĬups of tea are consumed each day in Britain These include trees that grow crops to eat or for sale indigenous trees that provide shade and wind protection trees they can prune to feed livestock and trees to fix or provide soil nutrients or mulch for their crops. Working with the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) and The International Small Tree Planting Programme (TIST), based in the US, the project encourages smallholder tea farmers to plant trees that provide innumerous benefits to their farms in the long run. In 2015, Britain’s second most popular tea brand pledged to plant a million trees by 2020: half by schools and communities in the UK, and the other by farmers on and around four tea estates in Kenya, from which it buys the majority of its blend. Mimuga is one of 4,000 Kenyan smallholder farmers benefiting from a reforesting project run by Yorkshire Tea. We are high up here and the taller trees protect from the wind.” The trees we grow create a lot of mulch as the leaves fall. “I’ve seen a lot of difference from doing this.

“We are uprooting the eucalyptus because they take a lot of water, and we are turning to other species.

“It helps to plant a lot of trees, to have fruit to sell,” he explains. I even found a biscuit appreciation society where they provide wonderful instructions in the art of dunking.Five years ago, Mimuga started planting trees. We like them to be infused with our national drink and just when they look like they will fall into the tea we hoover them into our mouths. We don’t just eat the biscuits we dunk them in our tea. A little search for figures on the web revealed that on average Brits consume a colossal 8kgs of biscuits per person per year.

The British rank among the top five tea-drinking countries in the world, around 2.74kg per person per year and what goes down well with a cuppa but a biscuit. High tea – early evening meal with savoury food and some cakes, served with teaĬream tea – cream cakes served with cups of tea Tea – evening meal (also referred to as supper or dinner)Īfternoon tea – sandwiches, cake and copious cups of tea Meals – tea can also refer to meals, which can be a bit confusing for the outsider. So builders brew has come to refer to tea served this way.įor ex: How do you take your tea? Builders tea is fine for me. This comes from cockney rhyming slang – a cup of Rosy Lee – tea.īuilders on construction sites brew up tea to drink on their tea breaks and they seem to like it strong, milky and with two sugars. From the original Chinese character cha 茶 – see my post on Chinese loanwords.įor ex: Let’s sit down and have and cup of char.