Your own baccy?

On a recent pipesmag podcast, Brian interviewed Jeremy Reeves ad talked about this. Pretty hard for a person to grow anything that is on par with what you can buy. Some have bought whole leaf and have had some success… but with harvesting and all of the processes required… flue curing, sun curing, perique to name a few…hard to achieve the results that we can enjoy from the commercial offerings.

Having said that, interested-in hearing others chime in.

Don't have the space to even try. I also have a black thumb when it comes to growing anything sadly.

I grew a plant about seven or eight years ago. I really had no idea on how to dry and cure the leaves properly though, so I never got to properly try it. I don’t really have a good spot to grow any and I have too many projects to devote any time to it. I believe one would have to take it on as a serious commitment.

There actually is a sizeable community of people who grow their own and some seed banks that have preserved many of the older strains. I have had some contact with these “homegrown” tobaccos and the ones I’ve tried were spectacular, definitely not inferior to the big corporate stuff, than the common commercial offerings, but of course I’m sure that’s a result of how much time, effort and experience the grower has.

I find it funny when the commercial blenders and companies talk it down or suggest it’s not possible. That’s just ridiculous. There isn’t some magic to farming or processing that only big commercial interests have access to. Everything involved is 19th century or earlier technology. Naturally there seems to be little crossover from the do it yourself crowd to the consumer crowd, which is true with anything. People looking to buy furniture don’t invest money and years of practice to build furniture, etc. If you’re interested in seeing the alternate pipe tobacco world and community of growers, search fair trade tobacco forum.

I saw recently that one of the west coast Indian tribes wanted to grow the same tobacco strain that their ancestors smoked in ceremonies before Columbus. It was thought to be extinct, but they found some seed in an European seed bank.

I have some ale in my fridge right now from a friend that brews and there’s hardly anything on the mainstream commercial market that compares. That may be a great analogy to tobacco. It’s reasonably easy to grow great strawberries and make jam with them that will exceed the quality of the commercial offerings, but how to do that is fairly accessible and not uncommon knowledge. Brewing is a bit less understood and somewhat uncommon, but obviously attainable for those who want to learn. Tobacco may be even more uncommon knowledge wise, but also quite attainable it seems.

I believe most things that can be done (food, plants etc.), can be done on a small scale better than the major commercial interests, since their first concern is profit/cost cutting, quality is the second. Individuals who take the time usually put quality first.

I think he's really enjoying Florida. He has different interests and busy days. Still, it would be nice if he would visit.

I hope I didn’t come across as directing my earlier comment to you, it was directed at the people who are in “big pipe tobacco”. They do often seem to gently detract from do it yourselfers and work diligently at making what they do seem mysterious or uniquely special, which I get business wise. I remember Mark Ryan being asked a question about growing your own years ago and as I remember, he pointed out that some of the most special leaf he would get occasionally was produced by really small farms and that it was quite doable. He encouraged people to try it if they were seriously interested, (he obviously did) but he said it would be more fun for most people to just buy it from the people who were already doing it well and just start blending your own.

I wish I had been more interested in such things back when he would freely sell many rare and exotic tobaccos along with the more common types.

I suppose I am just fundamentally opposed to the idea that our corporate overlords are the only ones who can provide for us, regardless of the particular product. 🤨