Harvesting your crop: Generally you should partially havest your plant from the bottom leaves up three times during the growing season. Leaves are stripped as they mature and start to turn yellow. Mature leaves are generally thick and sticky to touch. Once the leaves are stripped, they begin chemical changes inside that will give your tobacco it's unique flavor and identity. It is the curing(drying) process that gives tobacco it's desired color and flavor. The most economical and practical method of curing for the home grower is by air drying. Air drying can be accomplished in any building such as a barn, shop, or even a garage as long as the room is warm, dry, and can be ventilated. Once the drying process is done, then your tobacco can be sprayed with a fermenting solution (lots of recipes can be found online at tobacco forums), packed loosly in cheesecloth, burlap, or cotton drying bags and kiln dried at a low temperatures so has to allow the natural fermentation process to proceed.
Why Kiln Dry Your Tobacco?
A little history: Originally tobacco was smoked in pipes or ground into snuff. Tobacco curing was unheard of. With the advent of cigarette papers, cigarette smoking was born. Consumers demanded a more pleasant aroma and smoother taste, so heralded in the age of "curing". The purpose of curing is to sweat out the obnoxious smell and allow for a more palatable product and is a step that really should not be skipped. You can of course, sun or air dry your product and smoke it, but you will have a quite harsh product that will not be a pleasant experience. So do seriously consider finishing your product in a kiln. There are a number of free kiln plans on the internet that you can easily build at home. On such plan can be found HERE.
On average, you can expect to cure approximately five pounds of tobacco at a time over a 3-4 week period. This equates out to approximately enough tobacco for over 2,000 cigarettes at a time with each batch.
Shredding your Tobacco: When your tobacco is finished, then you need to cut it into long, thin strands for rolling or pipe smoking. The Cuthof Cutting Kit will do the job quickly and accurately. Read more on it below.
Flavoring your Tobacco: The secret to great tasting smooth tobacco is in the flavoring. The commercial companies use flavorings to smooth out tobacco, remove harshness and stinging and deliver a mellow flavored tobacco. You can find tobacco flavorings online, try Seedman.com
1. After tobacco has dried and cured properly, remove stems and shred tobacco (see our Cuthof Shredding Machine below) into the size you will use when smoking.
2. Place a pound of shredded tobacco into a large open tray and start misting the tobacco with the flavoring while stirring the tobacco thoroughly. 2 ounces of our pre-mixed flavoring will flavor one pound of tobacco.
3. After flavoring has been applied, cover container for 3-4 hours to allow tobacco to fully absorb flavoring, then spread tobacco out on a table or shelf to dry. Stir the tobacco every 4 hours or so to facilitate drying.
4. After 24 hours, tobacco should be ready to use. We recommend sampling a batch to insure that it has dried adequately, if it has not, allow to dry until burns evenly when lit.
Store bought tobacco that has been allowed to dry out and would no longer be smokeable can be given new life simply by adding different flavorings, using the above process. You can even mix 50/50 your homegrown tobacco with store bought tobacco for your own unique blend and still retain many of the smoking flavors that you are accustom to with that brand and save money!
Why Kiln Dry Your Tobacco?
A little history: Originally tobacco was smoked in pipes or ground into snuff. Tobacco curing was unheard of. With the advent of cigarette papers, cigarette smoking was born. Consumers demanded a more pleasant aroma and smoother taste, so heralded in the age of "curing". The purpose of curing is to sweat out the obnoxious smell and allow for a more palatable product and is a step that really should not be skipped. You can of course, sun or air dry your product and smoke it, but you will have a quite harsh product that will not be a pleasant experience. So do seriously consider finishing your product in a kiln. There are a number of free kiln plans on the internet that you can easily build at home. On such plan can be found HERE.
On average, you can expect to cure approximately five pounds of tobacco at a time over a 3-4 week period. This equates out to approximately enough tobacco for over 2,000 cigarettes at a time with each batch.
Shredding your Tobacco: When your tobacco is finished, then you need to cut it into long, thin strands for rolling or pipe smoking. The Cuthof Cutting Kit will do the job quickly and accurately. Read more on it below.
Flavoring your Tobacco: The secret to great tasting smooth tobacco is in the flavoring. The commercial companies use flavorings to smooth out tobacco, remove harshness and stinging and deliver a mellow flavored tobacco. You can find tobacco flavorings online, try Seedman.com
1. After tobacco has dried and cured properly, remove stems and shred tobacco (see our Cuthof Shredding Machine below) into the size you will use when smoking.
2. Place a pound of shredded tobacco into a large open tray and start misting the tobacco with the flavoring while stirring the tobacco thoroughly. 2 ounces of our pre-mixed flavoring will flavor one pound of tobacco.
3. After flavoring has been applied, cover container for 3-4 hours to allow tobacco to fully absorb flavoring, then spread tobacco out on a table or shelf to dry. Stir the tobacco every 4 hours or so to facilitate drying.
4. After 24 hours, tobacco should be ready to use. We recommend sampling a batch to insure that it has dried adequately, if it has not, allow to dry until burns evenly when lit.
Store bought tobacco that has been allowed to dry out and would no longer be smokeable can be given new life simply by adding different flavorings, using the above process. You can even mix 50/50 your homegrown tobacco with store bought tobacco for your own unique blend and still retain many of the smoking flavors that you are accustom to with that brand and save money!
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A reminder to my customers:
Virtual Seeds is primarily a garden seed company, not a tobacco company. I am very glad to offer advice on germination and growing of your plants, but I am not knowledgable in the curing and processing of tobacco. That is a whole different line of knowledge and I cannot offer advice on how to finish out your crop. I invite you to visit any number of tobacco forums online to contact other tobacco growers who are more than glad to share their techniques and answer your questions. One of the most active forums I have found is coffinnails.com
