For the first time in San Jose history, a Nepalese tea visionary will set foot in a British-style tea atelier with a Japanese name, Satori. It doesn’t get any more “half-Eastern, half-Western” than that, now does it?

In Nepal, Parshu Dahal runs the Society Development Center (SODEC), a grassroots nonprofit striving to reduce poverty via sustainable organic agriculture and other programs. On Saturday, Sept. 7 at 11am, he will descend upon Satori Tea Company for a special and serene get-together to share stories about farmers in remote communities of the Himalayan foothills. He will discuss the impact of organic cash crops on that part of the world, and share his ongoing projects and future plans. Organic tea from Nepal will be served along with light tea treats.

Dahal helped start SODEC in 2001, attempting to address local poverty by growing and processing organic tea for the export market. Realizing that tea could grow on otherwise useless land, he organized villagers and trained them on the planting, care and harvest of tea. Now he oversees a factory, collectively owned by 155 farming families, the first of its kind in Nepal.

At Satori Tea Company, he will share his visions, including a five-year project of planting organic almonds in rural Nepal and helping farmers in a new area start an income-generating industry for their future.