After its launch in 2021 and the first tests of growing, cutting, drying… Things are starting to get serious at the FBKT Plantation, where our 2 hectare plots of land, located just a stone’s throw from the workshop, are getting ready to receive the 28,400 aromatic and medicinal plants, market garden plants and tea trees that are to be planted this year!
FBKT, The Plantation: a reminder of the project!
La Plantation is the result of our desire to combine short circuits, a reduction in our carbon footprint (which, let’s not forget, is a heavy one in our business), autonomy in relation to our suppliers of raw materials, the revitalisation of our rural area (half of our employees live in the village), and the well-being of our employees (yes, because we all like to eat organic food and enjoy our free baskets of vegetables!) ….
The objective is to enable us to produce 20% of our raw material needs for our teas and infusions organically.
After an experimental phase in the spring-summer of 2021, which enabled us to acclimatise 5 different ecotypes of tea plants and to carry out our harvesting, cutting and drying tests on the aromatic plants (see article), the production phase has now been launched on our two plots.
28,000 plants and vegetables to cultivate!
A 1.3 hectare plot is intended to accommodate 15,000 aromatic and medicinal plant seedlings and 13,000 market garden seedlings. On this part, a greenhouse of 8 m X 40 m is currently being assembled: it will serve as a nursery and will house some winter vegetables for the employees’ vegetable baskets.
The dowser also identified the presence of a natural spring on the plot, located at a depth of about 3m20. We were therefore able to install a 4m3 well which will allow us to irrigate the plans in total respect of the planet’s resources, without the use of domestic water (water which returns to the earth, without loss).
400 tea trees in the Loire!
The ecotype of Camelia sinensis that performed best during our summer and winter in the Loire will be planted on a 7000m2 plot of land selected for its slope and exposure.
These are the first tea bushes planted in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region: they will allow us to “double”, in 3 or 4 years, the French tea production, currently harvested in the metropolis (about 50 kg).
At the same time, we have a third plot of 2.3 ha. in preparation for a 2023 plantation.
