Home Grown Tobacco - Part 1

So I have taken up to smoking a pipe; this is not unusual in my family. Most of the men have smoked a pipe at some time or other. I have actually inherited my fathers pipes & my great-great-grandfathers from Sweden. I have been shopping for my pipe sundries at Leavitt & Pierce in Harvard Square, Cambridge, Mass. And is the best smoke shop & men's sundries shop I have ever seen. Anyway, after trying 3 tobaccos now (Cherry Cavendish, Cavendish, and another) it occurred that one could grow tobacco. Or can one…

Apparently tobacco is not hard to grow, but to make it palatable to smoke the leaf needs to be cured for 1 to 6 years. Goodness, at least gardeners are supposed to be patient. Not just that the leaf can't just be hung next to the oregano & thyme and just dried. Curing requires the right condition, and the first article I read recommends construction an appropriate building. Blimey, I’m not against constructions, but just wanting a couple ounces of extra leaf is looking like it ain't going to be a cake walk.

Many years ago, grew some tobacco plants along with a bunch of Artemisia to make homemade insecticide, but in that case just dried the young plant as needed and made the deadly potion. I think I figured it was to hard to cure tobacco then because one of my roommates has worked picking tobacco in Georgia for a couple years.

There were references to tobacco in “Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden” by Gilbert Livingstone Wilson, Ph.D. (1868-1930) that would be another good place to start. However, there are a couple of problems with references to tobacco before the 1900’s. Firstly, they are not always talking about tobacco, often references are talking about cannabis. Secondly, they cured the tobacco in their hurts near the fires and the huts have the correct environment for curing smoky, humid, and warm. If I remember the old men stored & cured the leave for years in leather pouches too.

Some open quests are:
o Where do I get the tobacco seeds?
o What species of tobacco do I want to raise? There are several variations.
o How will I cure the tobacco? Apparently temperature, humidity, & time are major factors.
o Are there any easier methods for curing tobacco that tastes good? There is probably reasons that no one I knows grows their own tobacco.
o Could one learn from cooking on how to pre-treat the tobacco before it cures. Perhaps soaking it in a base or acid solution and then hanging it to cure.

Assuming that curing time is going to be an issue (1 to 6 years), I had better start next year. I just don't want to spend 3 years curing some tobacco only to get something that tastes like a Russian cigarette.