So here is my basement 1st room. Wife complains she has to duck to do laundry, 
After slow dry and rough trim, into the attic they go with a dehydrator, staplegun to the log rafters.
17 Likes
Reminds me of the old tobacco curing shacks I saw when I was a kid.
Cheers
G
14 Likes
Thatās what my shed looks like right now. Smells like teen spirit props 
5 Likes
Funny you say that, did tobacco when I was young, went of to see the world and came back. Maybe you can appreciate these pics. I worked tobacco in my 30s and 40s, because it was in my blood. Field tobacco, chopped, drove tractor, loader, hanger, and in the end spearer. Pic of me hanging barefoot, how I rolled. Chopped barefoot too. Hands at end of day, smart ones taped em . The old man in the pic has passed, but he kept this pic I gave him framed of us, on his desk til he diedā¦
Hope you enjoy the pics. Sorry for edit.
Me chopping my row. Hands end of day. Old man J. Memories
23 Likes
those are great pics! love that house
2 Likes
I can relate those pics!
The world we lived in before PPEā¦ It sure has changedā¦ 
Cheers
G
4 Likes
They sure have. I really think in a few years, dank medicine is gonnabe 25 bucks a lid.
And people will be growing their own tobacco as a black marketā¦
3 Likes
Thatās the real Pioneer Valley og stuff there, tobacco barns as far as the eye can see back in the day
3 Likes
Sooo, I was given First Gallery badge for this topic, says I can post unlimited pics of my grows here? Does that sound right? Is that what First Gallery means?
Anyways, I go for the slowww dry, temp is pretty cool, and I keep the humidity as low as I can without spending a bunch of $, around 50 or a little moreā¦
3 Likes
Looks like with my Gallery badge I can post pics. Feel like I should open a grow journal to stuff this years grow pics in. Iāll try it there, instead of here. Some great pics.
3 Likes
The hanging/junk/lung room lol
7 Likes
I spent time in those barns hanging tobacco at 11-12 years old. Donāt bring back those bad memories @Gpaw 
5 Likes
Sweet. Only 1000x cleaner than my room. Very nice!
2 Likes
@PioneerValleyOG Nice Pics. Iāve thought about trying to grow some tobacco, but i heard processing it was a bitch. Just curious, did you sell your tobacco to one of the big companies or was it kept local? Do you still grow/process tobacco?
1 Like
The last season I worked was like 4 years ago. Maybe 5. Iām not the farmer, just the worker with experience.
Connecticut and Mass have some amazing tobacco. In the industry, the leaves are considered the āchampagne of broadleafā, the wrapper is sought after even in Cuba. Hadley tobacco has always been considered top notch.
The buyers come around preseason and sign contracts for the expected grow. Most are from CT.
The short answer is it makes about 10k an acre. The tobacco is hung to try til December. It may be āsmokedā with shallow pans placed on the floor of the barns and a small fire lit to fight mold and insects. It is topped and sprayed with copper while growing. After hanging its taken down and the leaves are rolled out and sheaved into a bale. Once the bales are wrapped and stacked, counted and marked, off they go to the scales.
I worked with Jamaicans, they love the old, aged stuff. The āblack leaf, monā is highly valued, I saw some get sold for like 300 a pound. They bring it back, chop it and mix it with the ganja.
So this is broadleaf, made for cigar wraps. There was a huge demand in the valley back in the day. Everyone worked tobacco, but it was Shade tobacco, also made for wraps, every kid worked tobacco back in the 50-60s. Consolidated Cigar was The major money behind it all.
The uptick came when everyone started smoking Blunts. Wraps became popular and farmers were able to make a few dollars again. But the days of shade tobacco, fields of white nets, are over. Now itās only field tobacco, as far as I know.
4 Likes
Tobacco farmers are my roots.
1 Like
Ditto. My dad used to drive one of the busses that picked the kids up every day.
Field tobacco? Or shade tobacco, also known as tent tobacco?
Did they spear or sew?
So, I went to school in CT in 2006-2007, dorms were in Sheffield, just over the border from Aggawam. Tobacco fields everywhere! Heard the same thing āchampagne of tobaccoā. Some farms had significant portions of the fields covered in what looks like gothic roof high tunnels, but with white shade cloth instead of poly. Sounds like your shade grown, right? I always wondered what was up with that. We always joked it was where they grew the pot haha.
3 Likes
The neighborhood I grew up in was called Marlboro.. Most of the folks who lived there worked for Phillip Morris or a supporting business.
In the morning, at the bus stop, I could smell the tobacco sitting on the docks at the plant about 5-miles away. (It smelled good .)
My mother and father left the NC fields for Richmond in 1958. My grand fathers and with a few exceptions, my uncles kept farming.
My grandfather insisted I help put tobacco in when we visited in tandem with the season. Yuck. Itchy, dirty, sweaty.
When misbehaving or back-talking, as a kid, I was regularly threatened with a beating with a ābacca-stick.ā
No sticks thoughā¦. Belts sureā¦a switch, you betcha, a stray shoe or flip flop? Yepā¦.ā¦no sticksā¦ just threatsā¦.
2 Likes