GROWING PHILOSOPHY
NOTHING ADDED
The tea trees on Yanwu Peak receive no pesticide, no fertiliser, no herbicide, and no chemical treatment of any kind. This has not changed across generations.
At a thousand metres, there are no neighbouring farms, no adjacent agriculture, no runoff from other cultivation.
The oldest trees on the peak were planted in 1947. They grew untended for nearly four decades, driving their roots deeper into fractured granite and sandstone, answering only to the seasons. When the fourth generation reclaimed the mountain in 1985, the trees were still alive, broader and deeper‑rooted.
NOTHING TAKEN
Growing is a practice of restraint. We harvest only what the trees offer in each season and never push for greater yield.
The Liu Family’s High‑mountain Dancong produces 1-2 harvests per year, following the seasons, rainfalls, and temperature. The trees rest longer. They draw longer from the rock.
The mountain’s ecosystem is left intact. Wild grasses, native shrubs, and the natural ground cover that has built up over decades are not cleared or replaced. The soil is undisturbed. The trees share their ground with whatever else the mountain chooses to grow.
The less you take, the more the mountain gives back.
BY HAND
The little work that is done on the mountain is done by hand. When new terraces are cleared, the earth is opened and turned without machinery.
The soil is kept loose and aerated. Each planting is spaced deliberately. Trees are given room to grow outward as well as downward, with enough distance between them. Space, is forever part of our growing.
ROCK, WATER, LEAF
The bedrock beneath Yanwu Peak is granite and sandstone, threaded with quartz and trace minerals. It is part of what the tea carries.
Natural spring water surfaces at the peak and flows downward through the mountain year round. The trees drink this water, the family does too.
LISTENING
Years ago, the family placed speakers among the tea trees on the peak. They are shaped like lotus flowers, small and inconspicuous against the rock and green. Through them, the Heart Sutra plays quietly into the canopy.
Attention is paid to what cannot be measured. Periodically, the family welcomes a temple abbot to the mountain. It is a ritual carried out for the land. It is something they do quietly, for the trees and for themselves.
Nothing added. Nothing taken. Everything from the mountain.
Nothing added. Nothing taken. Everything from the mountain.