Nurturing Connection With Nature & Self
Words & Photography By Coline LeConte | Summer 2025
Patrick Sunbury carries an astonishing wealth of information on cultivating Camellia sinensis, otherwise simply known as tea. Though it is typically grown in secluded areas of Asia, he and his father set out on a mission to be the first to grow this plant commercially here in California. The Sunburys have been a farming family for five generations, and have put that heritage into what has become their Redwood Tea Estate in Morada, a section of Stockton County known as the capital of cherry growing in the Central Valley.
Patrick Sunbury’s green thumb extends into growing many edible plants throughout the property. There are typical crops of California such as artichoke, avocado and citrus, and then there are fascinating fruits like Ice Cream banana (peel it, freeze it and put milk on it to eat). There is plantain and then a banana and plantain hybrid, as well as longan, pineapple, guava, goji and more!
As we walk by a small cottage built in the 1870s that previously housed the winemaking Franzia family when this was their farm, Sunbury plucks a few goji berries for us to snack on while proclaiming, “they’re good for the eyes.” This statement is a reminder that he might not have become the California-grown tea pioneer had his eyes been able to keep looking at computer screens a much needed part of the profession for which he received a master’s degree in landscape architecture from Harvard. Developing a rare nerve disorder that affects his eyes is
Sunbury still practices landscape architecture. You can experience how he thoughtfully situated the tea ceremony, tasting and sitting areas around the estate. He even intentionally planned the continuation of the tea rows with footpaths leading into one of the garden retreat spaces.
He purposefully planted the tea in an area where he put Quercus lobata, native Valley oak trees, “a lightning rod for nature,” as Sunbury states. Tea grown under the shade of a tree has 50% more humidity, which retains coolness and prevents leaf scorch during summer heatwaves. These oak trees, planted every 25 feet, illustrate Sunbury’s agroforestry practices, in which every 10 years he will remove one of the trees to maintain an even shade cover for the tea growing underneath. This means that in 40 years one tree will create the same shade as the initial four trees.
Additionally, these oak trees have compatible root systems with the tea, an essential consideration so that the two species don’t interfere. The water table at Redwood Tea Estate is about 50 feet, so the trees reach straight down and don’t compete with the surface tea roots.
There are also surrounding plants that draw in beneficial insects to conduct their own ecosystem. In the first year of the estate, they had pressure from a cabbage butterfly (Pieris rapae). The tea plants naturally build caffeine to ward off bugs but when the plants are sick they can’t make as much caffeine. A natural predator for these butterflies and their caterpillars are parasitic wasps, so Sunbury introduced an endemic habitat by planting yarrow. Yarrow doubles as a native and as something the wasps like to pollinate. This system takes time to introduce the population, and they have to continuously build it to keep reinforcing troops. But proof is apparent. For example, they had a similar aphid problem on the oak trees. By introducing lacewings, lacewing eggs and ladybugs, within a week the aphids were gone. Establishing these natural control methods has created a balance that keeps their tea damage free.
The tea plant produces better flavor and more nutrition when grown in conditions of hot days and cool nights, otherwise known as diurnal swings. If you are a tea drinker you may have found that the finest (and thus, more expensive) teas are grown at high altitudes. These diurnal swings at higher altitudes are attributed to these more complex flavor characteristics.
Sunbury has not only figured out how to accomplish growing tea in the hot summers and frosty winters of Central California, he has also figured out how to deal with varying levels of acid in the soil, finding pH and alkaline balance for the thriving rows. He also continues to explore various cultivars to see which do best at his farm, and which ones provide the highest quality leaf.
Sunbury finds an equilibrium between growing tea, growing fruit and practicing landscape architecture. He explores a range of native to bizarre plant varieties while trialing different growing systems. For him, the motivation comes from the challenge of trying to grow new things and the true taste of fresh food. He reflects, “People tell you what food is, and it’s not what it actually is. When I tried my first garden-grown asparagus or tree-picked fruit, it was not what I thought. I think it’s the same thing with tea. Most people associate tea as a dry little powder in this plastic bag. But it’s big beautiful leaves that unfurl; there’s multiple steepings and each steeping has its own subtle differences.”
 Sunbury delves deeper into the lessons that being outside can provide. “It gives us perspective on our own lives. Part of it is that everything is always changing. Things are beautiful because they are temporary. So this brief moment in time when this plant is blooming or flowering, this part gives you a reflection on your own life, your own mortality. Spending time outside gets you thinking and helps with ego elimination to see the majesty. Be a happier person.”Â
