Between rooibos crops
On 13 May, at dusk, a planter was sowing oats and lupins between rooibos rotations. This was work directed towards restoring the land before the next rooibos crop. The photographs hold a stage that is less visible in the finished tea: the interval between one planting and the next.
Following the planter
One view brings the machinery close; the other follows it from behind as the light goes. Together they show the same task at two distances. The nearer picture gives the work its detail, while the wider one places the planter back in the field.
A longer view of cultivation
A rooibos story is often told from harvest to tea court, but these May photographs begin earlier. The field is being prepared through another crop in the rotation. Oats, lupins and the planter belong to that longer account of cultivating the land, alongside the rooibos that will follow.
