The Last Two Gardens in Europe

On a green hillside above the northern coast, rows of clipped tea bushes ran downhill in long, tidy stripes toward the sea, almost as neat as if they had been drawn with a ruler. Polly landed on a low stone wall at the edge of the plantation and looked out over one of only two places left on the entire European continent where tea is still grown commercially, and the only one open to visitors.

På en grøn skråning over nordkysten løb rækker af klippede tebuske ned mod havet i lange, ordentlige striber, næsten så nøjagtige som var de tegnet med lineal. Polly landede på en lav stenmur i udkanten af plantagen og så ud over et af kun to steder tilbage på hele det europæiske kontinent, hvor der stadig dyrkes te kommercielt, og det eneste, der er åbent for besøgende.

The plantation began in eighteen eighty-three, after a disease wiped out the oranges that used to be the island's main export. Looking for something else the volcanic soil could support, a local grower imported tea bushes along with English machinery built to process them, and both have stayed in near-continuous use ever since, making this the oldest working tea estate in Europe by a wide margin.

Plantagen begyndte i attenhundrede og treogfirs, efter at en sygdom havde udryddet de appelsiner, der før var øens vigtigste eksportvare. På jagt efter noget andet, som den vulkanske jord kunne bære, hentede en lokal avler tebuske hjem sammen med engelske maskiner bygget til at forarbejde dem, og begge dele har været i næsten uafbrudt brug lige siden, hvilket gør stedet til Europas klart ældste tegård i drift.

Inside the low factory building, iron machines more than a century old still roll, sort, and dry the leaves almost exactly as they did when they first arrived by ship. Workers still pick the newest growth by hand along the terraces, since the tender top leaves make the best tea, and nothing here is sprayed with pesticide or herbicide, a rule the growers have kept since the very beginning.

Inde i den lave fabriksbygning ruller, sorterer og tørrer jernmaskiner på over hundrede år stadig bladene næsten præcis som dengang, de ankom med skib. Arbejderne plukker stadig de nyeste skud i hånden langs terrasserne, for de sarte topblade giver den bedste te, og intet her sprøjtes med pesticider eller ukrudtsmidler, en regel avlerne har holdt fast i fra allerførste dag.

Polly walked along one warm terrace, brushing against rows of glossy green leaves that smelled faintly of grass and rain. Somewhere down the slope, five generations of growers had kept this hillside exactly as it was meant to be, one careful harvest at a time.

Polly gik langs en varm terrasse og strejfede rækker af blanke grønne blade, der duftede svagt af græs og regn. Et sted nede ad skråningen havde fem generationer af avlere holdt denne bakkeside præcis, som den skulle være, én omhyggelig høst ad gangen.