Home Grown

[parris001]

First off, all attempts have been made to keep politics out of what I'm about to say.

With all of the pending legislation on tobacco (legal product, right?) that is coming our way, what are we smokers to do? I don't want to take a holier-than-thou attitude towards cigarette smokers but I do believe that the product we pipe and cigar smokers consume is of better quality and healthier (poor choice of words) that the cigarette weed. I have gotten my wife to swap over to some different British cigarette brands and she agrees they taste better and I feel better that they are additive free. I feel that our product is getting a bad rap because of the mass produced crap coming out of the big American tobacco producers. Which leads me to wonder if I should feel sorry for them (I'm a Carolina boy, pro-tobacco, grew up just outside Winston-Salem) and the scrutiny they are under when they could do a lot to help repair their own image.

If they come down on my weed too hard I'm just going to grow my own. Granted, I know I won't be able to reproduce some of the flavorful blends I like. But I've learned to brew my own beer that's much to my liking. Even make a wine that many find to be pretty good. So will I be reduced to having to produce the means for my smoking vice? Does anyone else here grow their own tobacco and smoke it? What methods are used to add flavors? If I get a hand of tobacco from my neighbor and stuff it in a used gym sock will I get something that might catch on and others may want to buy?

What are we to do? Is there any hope in this that used to be the land of Freedom? Has Capitalism ruined our product?

[sounds7]

What I intend on doing is leaning very hard on my family abroad. My Wifes family lives in Amsterdam where as you know, you can get pretty much what ever your heart desires as long as it doesnt kill someone else. My brother in law works for KLM and can fly Cargo for very cheap. Thats the plan anyway. But what I really might suggest before it gets that bad is what other smokers are doing at the moment.. Stock up.

Originally Posted by parris001

First off, all attempts have been made to keep politics out of what I'm about to say.

With all of the pending legislation on tobacco (legal product, right?) that is coming our way, what are we smokers to do? I don't want to take a holier-than-thou attitude towards cigarette smokers but I do believe that the product we pipe and cigar smokers consume is of better quality and healthier (poor choice of words) that the cigarette weed. I have gotten my wife to swap over to some different British cigarette brands and she agrees they taste better and I feel better that they are additive free. I feel that our product is getting a bad rap because of the mass produced crap coming out of the big American tobacco producers. Which leads me to wonder if I should feel sorry for them (I'm a Carolina boy, pro-tobacco, grew up just outside Winston-Salem) and the scrutiny they are under when they could do a lot to help repair their own image.

If they come down on my weed too hard I'm just going to grow my own. Granted, I know I won't be able to reproduce some of the flavorful blends I like. But I've learned to brew my own beer that's much to my liking. Even make a wine that many find to be pretty good. So will I be reduced to having to produce the means for my smoking vice? Does anyone else here grow their own tobacco and smoke it? What methods are used to add flavors? If I get a hand of tobacco from my neighbor and stuff it in a used gym sock will I get something that might catch on and others may want to buy?

What are we to do? Is there any hope in this that used to be the land of Freedom? Has Capitalism ruined our product?

[sounds7]

On the topic, I farmed my own once and the stuff tasted awful. Also my uncle grew tobacco in Kentucky for a living but even though he was a smoker and produced many of his own products on the farm (Eggs, Bacon, vegetables, etc.) I do not recall him ever making his own smoke. It is a very complicated procedure to get a good tasting tobacco. Most of the time you need to grow more than one type of tobacco and each may have its own climate/soil preferences. After which the tedious processes and aging and the finally the easy part, the blending. I dont think I will be taking any more chances growing my own.

[drastic_quench]

Originally Posted by sounds7

On the topic, I farmed my own once and the stuff tasted awful. Also my uncle grew tobacco in Kentucky for a living but even though he was a smoker and produced many of his own products on the farm (Eggs, Bacon, vegetables, etc.) I do not recall him ever making his own smoke. It is a very complicated procedure to get a good tasting tobacco. Most of the time you need to grow more than one type of tobacco and each may have its own climate/soil preferences. After which the tedious processes and aging and the finally the easy part, the blending. I dont think I will be taking any more chances growing my own.

Yes. Everything I've read on the subject tells me that it is an incredibly difficult process when you take curing into account. The only way I could see growing my own was if I dedicated myself to a mono-blend of just Virginia or burley. It'd be too damn difficult to impossible to make batches of orientals and latakia and perique.

[MarkC]

As a teenager, I worked one summer on a tobacco farm (you think the tar builds up in your pipe, you ought to try getting the stuff out of your arm hair after a day of picking!) and tried rolling up a cig of freshly dried leaf. To break out the old Dorothy Parker quote, there's just no there there. The farming is apparently just one step in the process; it takes a lot more work to produce a smokable product.

On a side note, when I asked the boss where he thought his tobacco ended up, he said his wasn't "crappy enough" for the cigarette companies...he assumed it ended up in pipe tobacco...

[KevinV]

Originally Posted by parris001

With all of the pending legislation on tobacco (legal product, right?) that is coming our way, what are we smokers to do?

I'm stocking up. I don't have a green thumb so I wouldn't even make it past the growing phase let alone curing. I'm building a stockpile to last me as long as possible and then I'll just have to roll with the punches beyond that. Tobacco is under attack and it's not going to get better. The latest measures are considered a "good start" by the anti smoking activists and nowhere near their goal...it's just going to get worse.

After all, there's a Global Tobacco Surveillance System with 6 strategies, one of which is...

"Raise taxes on tobacco products:

• Objective – Progressively less affordable tobacco products."

There's more to come...much more. So for me it's time to stock up.

[Mad Hatter]

I plan to smoke my lawn clippings, maybe add a good casing of rum and sugar with just a twist of distilled spring water

[SmokinJohnny]

When I was a kid, we dried out salal leaves and rolled them into cigs with zig zag papers. God what horrid tasting stuff. Why? It was a kid thing. That's all I can think of.

[MarkC]

Originally Posted by KevinV

I'm stocking up. I don't have a green thumb so I wouldn't even make it past the growing phase let alone curing. I'm building a stockpile to last me as long as possible and then I'll just have to roll with the punches beyond that. Tobacco is under attack and it's not going to get better. The latest measures are considered a "good start" by the anti smoking activists and nowhere near their goal...it's just going to get worse.

After all, there's a Global Tobacco Surveillance System with 6 strategies, one of which is...

"Raise taxes on tobacco products:

• Objective – Progressively less affordable tobacco products."

There's more to come...much more. So for me it's time to stock up.

I agree. Plenty of people think the world would be a much better place without tobacco, and at least for now, they seem to be in the drivers seat. Is it a permanent trend? Who knows, but at fifty, I'm not betting on living long enough to see the end of it. I figure 90 is an outside shot for me, so I can buy twice what I need for 20 years and I'll be set. Of course, betting on tobacco being available and affordable for 20 years is a major gamble in itself right now, so maybe I need to ramp that up a bit.

The good news is, at least I have a justification for my outbreak of TAD!