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market-farming - RE: [Market-farming] tobacco

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Subject: Market Farming

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  • From: "Wiediger, Alison" <awiediger AT HART.k12.ky.us>
  • To: 'Market Farming' <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: RE: [Market-farming] tobacco
  • Date: Tue, 23 Mar 2004 11:54:40 -0600

To market it through the marketing system, you must have a "quota" which
entitles you to market it, and guarantees you a base price. To grow it for
yourself, you need seeds, a warm greenhouse to start transplants, fertile
soil to grow it and about 90-100 days growing time. To get top quality
burley, it needs to be topped just before it blooms, and the suckers that
then develop have to be taken off - perhaps 2-3 times. In late summer, it
turns a golden color. At that time, you can cut the whole stem, put it on
tobacco sticks by making a slit in the bottom of the stem and sliding it
onto the stick. About 5-6 per stick. Hang the sticks in a curing area
(barn) to cure. When finished curing, the leaves are stripped off the
stems, graded and put into bales for sale (we used to tie them into "hands")
Once it is sold, I have no idea how the tobacco companies turn it into
smoking tobacco - lots of "additives", probably.

This is for air cured - there are other ways of curing which involve taking
the leaves instead of the whole plant, and "smoking" You've never lived
until you've seen a tobacco barn "smoking" in the fall. I've only worked
with air-cured burley - and that over 20 years ago.

I agree that the chemicals used both in the growing and the processing
probably make the native plant more deadly, but nicotine is so addictive,
regardless of production. However, someone who is going to smoke anyway,
I'd bet organic tobacco is the lesser of evils.

Alison Wiediger - who still loves to watch burley grow

> ----------
> From: Windsoap AT aol.com[SMTP:Windsoap AT aol.com]
>
> Since there are people who are going to smoke no matter (including my
> husband) it seems that organic tobacco would be a profitable "niche" crop.
> Any ideas?
> Wendy Akin
> Akin Farm
> Texas
>




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