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Field notes

Cutting and sweating the rooibos

28 March 2020, on the tea court: freshly hand-cut bundles waiting to be chopped, the rotovator turning the previous night's fermentation to the deep red that is ready for drying, and dried tea off the court. The next morning the cut bushes in the field were wet with dew.

By Japie Nel

Freshly cut green rooibos bundles tied with white cord, stacked in low sun
Freshly hand-cut rooibos bundles, ready to be chopped and fermented.

From the field to the court

On 28 March, freshly hand-cut rooibos bundles were waiting to be chopped. Tied with white cord, the green stems lay together in low sunlight. This is the beginning of the sequence on the tea court: the crop has left the field, but its familiar red colour has not yet developed.

The change to red

Another photograph shows the rotovator turning the previous night’s fermentation. The rooibos has taken on the deep red that marks this stage before drying. Beside the green bundles, the change is clear. The machinery, the long low heap and the open court show a different part of the work from the standing bushes in the field.

Dry tea and morning dew

The sequence also includes dried tea off the court. The following morning, back in the field, dew lay on the cut bushes. The pictures move between processing and the ground the crop came from, bringing the tea court and the field into one short account of those March days.

A tractor with a rotovator working a long low heap of red rooibos on the tea court
The rotovator turning over the rooibos after the night's fermentation, turning it a deep red, ready to dry.
A close view of dried red-brown rooibos on a white sheet
Dried rooibos from the tea court.
Fine green rooibos stems wet with dew, backlit by early sun
Rooibos after it is cut, with early morning dew.