2015 tobacco is in the barn.

 I get lots of questions about dark tobacco and how we grow and cure the leaf.  Each plant is hand cut and spiked onto the tobacco sticks.  The sticks are then loaded on the wagons to take to the barn.  We try and let the tobacco hang a day or two on the wagon to wilt and make it easier and lighter to handle.  The pictures show the tobacco cut in the field and then being picked up and placed on tobacco frames for transport to the barn.  We have barns that all sizes and shapes.  Some hold an acre some hold 5 and our biggest holds about 12 acres.  Cutting tobacco in 95 plus degree heat is a grueling task.

Sherman Marklin pictured above backing a wagon up to the barn to be unloaded.  The tobacco is unloaded and then handed up into the barn and hung with care on the tiers of the barn for curing.  Each stick weighs about 75 pounds.  

Once the tobacco barn is full we place hardwood slabs from oak and hickory trees on the floor of the barn and cover them with sawdust.  Then we place kindling in holes scattered throughout the barn and light fires in each hole.  This is the part where knowing the barn and having an understanding of the stage the tobacco and the weather is in becomes critical. If you light too many fires and get it too hot too quickly you will flash dry the tobacco and set a green or yellow color.  If you don't light enough fires you will "sweat" the tobacco and make the leaves rot in the barn and greatly decrease quality and yield.  Curing tobacco is equal parts knowledge, tradition and luck.  

The fires are lit and they will die down to a smoldering fire once the kindling is all gone out of each hole.  We get lots of calls from folks passing through to tell us our barns are on fire.  

Dark Air Cured tobacco is hung in a more open barn where the natural heat and wind cure the tobacco.  If you have good curing conditions you get a nice color if it's too wet we may have to open fire these barns to dry them out.  Basically, open firing is lighting little campfires all over the barn to dry the tobacco out.