| State finds a new cup of tea
BURLINGTON, Wash. (AP) -- Just behind the Sakuma Brothers Farms Market Stand, in a 5-acre field bordered by a strawberry patch, a decade-long project to bring locally grown tea to market has finally come to fruition.Earlier this summer, workers walked through the tightly packed rows of nondescript evergreen plants, named Camellia sinensis, and one-by-one they pinched off the plants leaves near the stem.Later, the leaves were heated, rolled and dried in the sun, with the resulting brittle flakes ready to be steeped in water and served as tea.Last month, after the Sakumas first sale of loose-leaf green and white teas, the family-owned farm became just the second commercial tea plantation in the continental United States, and the first on the West Coast.
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A tea party for charity
TRUST the dynamic Bea Zobel of the Catholic Women�s Club to turn an ordinary event like a tea party into something extraordinary for charity. That was exactly what she did recently when she hosted a garden tea party for the beneficiaries of the club. CWC president Tessie Rodrigo immediately convened a working committee to carry out the plan as conceptualized by the host. Appointed members of the organizing committee were Tessie Luz as chairman, Nikki Valerio as co-chairman, Mimi Valerio and Chloe Periquet as program chairs, and Pili Berre�nechea and Lita Gelano for physical arrangements. Carmina Man�tecon and Ellie Esteban were tasked to determine the beneficiaries of the affair. It was a hot and humid day, but despite the searing temperature, the vast lawn of the Zobels began to fill up at the designated time of 3 p.m.
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