The Future of Tobacco?

[karam]

All that really happened (from my perspective) from the NZ government banning tobacco imports was give pipe smokers a kick up the arse to grow their own crop. The experiences gleaned from even my first season of growing helped me understand tobacco as a plant more than all of the smoking I have done over the last decade. I now have a cellar of special blends to savour, share and trade - everything from Shitty 1q to 20year old navy flake automatically fell into this category overnight. With the exception of a few tins passing through duty free from travellers, this is all there is from here on out, unless I grow my daily smoke. Long story short, future of tobacco is us all becoming Codgers and smoking simple burley (well I’ll still have a decent stash of 79 to get me through)

over here in Greece it's also hard - but not impossible - to get a lot of the premium tobacco we all like to talk about.

This year I grew my first plants and had a similar thought with you, but not borne out of necessity: my aim for the coming years will be building a cellar of premium tobacco, and trying to cover my day to day needs with homegrown. I believe eventually it'll have to be like this sadly.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Arcane: understood by few; mysterious or secret.

What an excellent word choice!

Over thought would be the better terminology. New smokers and onlookers think it harder than need be. A pipe will nearly smoke itself if you let it.

 

[olkofri]

A pipe will nearly smoke itself if you let it.

Are you calling me a control freak?
?

 

[Chasing Embers]

Are you calling me a control freak?
?

Would I be wrong? ?

 

[rajangan]

All that really happened (from my perspective) from the NZ government banning tobacco imports was give pipe smokers a kick up the arse to grow their own crop. The experiences gleaned from even my first season of growing helped me understand tobacco as a plant more than all of the smoking I have done over the last decade. I now have a cellar of special blends to savour, share and trade - everything from Shitty 1q to 20year old navy flake automatically fell into this category overnight. With the exception of a few tins passing through duty free from travellers, this is all there is from here on out, unless I grow my daily smoke. Long story short, future of tobacco is us all becoming Codgers and smoking simple burley (well I’ll still have a decent stash of 79 to get me through)

Surely you can get flue cured seed? What seed do you have?

 

[Ahi Ka]

Surely you can get flue cured seed? What seed do you have?

I forgot to add I just love burley. I actually think I may have technically grown Catterton Maryland instead of burley this season - not by choice but rather it has been prolific in NZ and was probably the generic burley seed I purchased. I Currently have a couple of bright leaf variety’s, semois, Black Sea Samson as well as the Cross pollinated seed collected from this last year which I aim to sow this week. Yes you’re right inspite of my ulterior motives, I shouldn’t just limit the future of tobacco to burley when a simple flue cure set up is possible.

 

[Ahi Ka]

My actual goal being to perfect a home grown match of the old edgeworth slices so I can arouse daily envy in the “what are your smoking” thread. Who cares for tax free tobacco when you can’t buy the slice ??

 

[magicpiper]

My late wife (I eventually remarried) was the granddaughter of a tobacco farmer and used to stick tobacco to hang in the tobacco barn to cure. That is she'd tie bundled leaves to a stick that fit on cross beams. Then a low fire would be kept burning for months to slowly cure the leaf. Since I arrived in N.C. in the early 70's, I've watched the tobacco industry fade. I always intended to go to one of the big tobacco auctions, part sales events and part harvest festival, but the opportunity just slipped away. Tobacco was one of the earliest cash crops in the colonies that became the U.S., starting in Virginia I believe. Now most of the tobacco is grown under contract, and the tobacco auction barns are used for flea markets, storage, or stand empty.

I was lucky to have witnessed a tobacco auction as a kid. Dad took me once in the early 80's. I think it was in Whiteville but not 100% sure. I was fascinated by not only the auctioneer but the goings on around the whole place. It was like controlled chaos. I can still smell it in my mind. The smell is still remarkable after 36 years.

 

[Perique]

Cellaring your favorites is essential at this point. I’ve invested quite a bit stocking up on my remaining favorites after losing so many just over the past few years. I’ll probably be good without ever having to buy another tin, but those precious few I have left from discontinued blends and blenders from before I was stocking up in earnest will be cherished for special occasions.
The irony is that I was warned to take these measures years ago on this very site. I didn’t ignore the advice (thank God), but I didn’t stock up with the thought that so many blends could be lost in just a few short years due to lack of the necessary tobaccos. The result is a huge stock of currently available favorites but only those few precious tins of my discontinued blends.

Do with that what you will, but I wish I could go back only a few short years and stock up.