Lancaster Farming: Tobacco Harvest Time
- Thread starter woodsroad
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I was just there Saturday. It felt nice seeing tobacco fields still somewhere, since they've all but disappeared in Southern Maryland.
I’ll have to kayak the Susquehanna this weekend, give me an excuse to drive through that area. I always enjoy seeing the tobacco hung from the rafters. Anyone know of a place out that way selling Amish cigars or pipe tobak?
Just drive in and ask. I’ve always found the Amish to be friendly and receptive to the concept of turning a buck. Just leave your miniskirt at home.
Very nice @woodsroad. Growing up, many farmers in my area of Middle Tennessee grew tobacco. Just 1/4 mile from my farm was a barn where every fall the farmers would smoke cure their tobacco. The smell of smoke emanating from a tobacco barn still takes me back to my youth. Sadly, I rarely have the chance to smell it anymore. Now days, tobacco farmers are almost non-existent, outside of a few select areas. Thanks for sharing.
I've always wondered how many Amish we have on the forum. Of course, they probably wouldn't admit it, ha ha.
HAHA Last time I was in Lancaster county my family and I visited pubic library, there were several computers with Amish using the internet. Horse-drawn buggies parked outside lol. They still have the benefit of not being tethered to it 24 hrs a day I suppose.
As someone who had an acre growing a couple of years ago, just don't be surprised if the farmer (Amish or not) just politely blows off a request to purchase their tobacco. I know when I would get folks watching us harvest, and then they approach me to buy some, it sends weird paranoid vibes... like local Ag Agent vibes, testing me to see if I will break federal laws.
I mean, it is worth a try I guess... but just don't push it if they shrug you off.
A few years back, I picked up the phone and called the Kentucky farm extention service and asked for contact info for dark fired growers. They were happy to oblige. I left messages for three farmers, and they all called me back. The first two had already sold all the DF that they had grown. The third was more than happy to pack a flat rate box with whole leaf hands and make $10 a pound, more than the chew factory pays.
I believe you sent me some of that DF. Great stuff.
Yeh, my paranoia is that it becomes a sticky wicket selling the leaf without collecting the taxes. In NC, where I was growing, I did not have a wholesale nor retail license. If the Amish are already set up to sale, which they probably are, it’s probably ok.
I was just growing for my own consumption. Yeh, it was more than I could smoke in a lifetime, which made me a little paranoid also, ha ha.
I’m still not walking onto some fella’s farm unannounced. So I repeat, does anyone know where I can buy Amish tobacco (at a retail establishment)?
My somewhat educated assumption is that all of their tobacco crop is either contracted for or used personally. I knew an Amish businessman who smoked local, hand rolled cigars, but said that they come “from a friend”. That’s nice talk for “not for the English”. He was unimpressed with the El Rey Del Mundo that I gave him.
As for walking onto some guy’s farm, Used to do it all the time when I worked for the paper in Philadelphia. Although I lived only 54 miles from the office downtown, they all thought that I lived somewhere near Canada. So they’d call me and ask me to go find a weather picture. I’d drive around, spot someone delivering a calf in a field, or baling hay and wander in and introduce myself. I’d usually end up staying for an hour or more, chatting and making pictures. Farmers were always very welcoming and kind. Just be sure to close the gate behind you and don’t try to pet the bulls.
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