1st Tea Farm In Maryland Savors Success Of Locally Grown Product

WOODBINE, MD — For the past 12 years, Maryland's first tea farm has brewed up success from its Howard County location.

Owner Lori Baker told Patch she and her husband, Bob, bought Heron's Meadow Farm in December 2013. They planted their first tea plants in the spring of 2014.

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"All tea comes from the same plant, the Camellia sinensis. From the Camellia sinensis leaves you can create white, green, oolong or black teas by varying the steps taken when processing the leaves," Baker told Patch. "At Heron's Meadow Farm, we create a green (Terrapin Green) and a black (Black Raven) tea. We also periodically produce a white tea called Daisy White."

Their tea business, called BLTeas, focuses on growing and processing local, high-quality tea for customers. They typically roll out their tea throughout the summer. Because of Maryland's colder winters, the tea plant has a shorter harvest window, so the Bakers blend their teas with similarly high quality leaves grown around the world.

"I'm an engineer by trade and knew that I wanted to get into some type of agriculture post-engineering career. Both my husband and I are avid tea drinkers. My husband was the one who suggested trying to grow tea. We did some research and…voila….we started the farm," Lori Baker told Patch.

Located at 1596 Daisy Road in Woodbine, the Bakers have a farm store at their property that features more than 40 varieties of tea, along with hand-crafted stoneware mugs, artisan honey and stoneware teapots created by Lori Baker, a potter, at the on-farm MudPi Studios. There are also functional pottery items, crocheted pieces, and other artisan goods.

BLTeas also has an online store.

The farm store's regular tea customers typically are local residents, Baker said. Personally, Baker said she enjoys all types of tea. Her husband prefers unfavored black teas. She sometimes adds lemon or a bit of cream and sugar to her cup.

The Bakers also grow herbs, botanicals for teas and some flowers, Lori Baker told Patch. Customers can also sign up for the pottery classes she teaches.

Customers can check the tea crop's progress on their website and learn more about the pottery classes on their Facebook page.