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Millymollymandy wrote:Oh so just another thing for my sunny windowsills in the living room along with growing basil, drying walnuts and ripening green tomatoes then.

At least you'll be able to hang these from the top You see you weren't utilising all the available space. Of course you won't have much sunlight

Green Aura wrote:

Millymollymandy wrote:Oh so just another thing for my sunny windowsills in the living room along with growing basil, drying walnuts and ripening green tomatoes then.

At least you'll be able to hang these from the top You see you weren't utilising all the available space. Of course you won't have much sunlight

It WOULD have been OK during the 4 years that I had curtain poles but no curtains (they were handy for hanging my strung up drying chillies too). Only now I finally do have curtains they are a tad in the way. Or maybe I could use the leaves as an alternative to a bead curtain in front of the French windows?

My seeds arrived yesterday so thank you very much pbf! Actually that must be a record (2 days ), we can do France to England in 2-3 days but usually it's several days longer the other way round.

Thanks for the instructions and it does sound like I'll be hanging them from a curtain pole - well I don't ever pull the curtains in our hallway which is sunny so I'll string them up there!! I hope it's not going to smell like a cigar factory though inside.

And talking of post - Channel Islands to here.... we are so close and there are daily flights and ferries to just up the road from here (less than one hour away) yet it seems that CI post has to be flown to British mainland and then be flown back to France. Their post takes about 10 days to get here.

Baccy growing seems to be just as much a mystery & full of gobble-de-gook as bread making & home brew then, huh?

So this is what I've found over the last 2 years....
In the UK, you can legally grow it, cure it, shred it, but once you start to smoke it, you have to declare it & pay the tax... yeah right
Here in Ireland, you can apply for a licence that costs 5 euros & then you can grow for your own personal use. Simple! But then they don't really lose too much sleep if you haven't got a licence, so that's that.

Seeds: Typically, they look like dust & can be a nightmare to start, so just pop them on the top of damp compost & spray with a fine mist until they start to grow - really, they are SO tiny! Start them off indoors - I did mine in the house last year & in the polyhouse this year. The windowsill gave a better germination - it was warmer. I bought my seeds in from the US - I think I got around 300 seeds for about 9 euros & have given quite a bit away - I've some left for next year as well.

Once you have proper little plants, transfer them. Now, they don't actually like to be too wet at the root, so last year they grew to a height of about 3ft - and then came the floods - disaster!
This year, I grew them in the polyhouse & we had 6 ft plants with huge leaves - much better!!

Some books/sites tell you to cut the stems & hang the lot to dry the leaves & that's ok if you have the room.
I actually DO have the room & height in the hayshed, but it was easier to just cut the leaves as they started to turn yellow & hang the leaves in bunches.

And that's where I'm at so far......

Next step, when they are suitably brown enough, I shall bring some in to dry & crumble... then I am going to boil the rest, squeeze & make into a block before shredding & toasting - I'll let you know how it all goes!!

Oddly, Julie, you're not exactly correct about the UK. The tax point is shredding - until you do that, there's no duty and, if you simply roll up a leaf and smoke it, there's no duty. Luckily, the powers that be have publicly stated that they're not going to set up a department to chase home growers and I think with an idiotically complex rule like that, I don't blame them.

Now - "then I am going to boil the rest, squeeze & make into a block before shredding & toasting".

You seem to know something I don't know. Is this an alternative curing method? Do tell - pretty, pretty, pretty please!!!!!!!

Mike

Snuff involves pulverising rather than shredding... and all you'd need to do is dry it first. Bought a small pack to try but not sure what i make of it regarding its safety though have no doubt over its efficacy. This guy likes it: http://www.snuffbox.org.uk/

MKG wrote:Oddly, Julie, you're not exactly correct about the UK. The tax point is shredding - until you do that, there's no duty and, if you simply roll up a leaf and smoke it, there's no duty. Luckily, the powers that be have publicly stated that they're not going to set up a department to chase home growers and I think with an idiotically complex rule like that, I don't blame them.

Now - "then I am going to boil the rest, squeeze & make into a block before shredding & toasting".

You seem to know something I don't know. Is this an alternative curing method? Do tell - pretty, pretty, pretty please!!!!!!!

Mike

Aaahh... Mike, it was a good few years ago when I looked at the UK laws, so maybe it's changed, or I'm wrong.... but I'm sure it was ok to follow the process through until the actual smoke - anyways, whatever....

When I bought my seeds, I also got a book 'Growing & Processing Tobacco at Home. A Guide for Gardeners' by Jim Johnson.
Now, I'm not too sure about typing out whole pages & copyright etc etc, but I can scan the relevant pages & send those to you via email if you like?
It goes into details about what flavourings to use & while it's a bit of a rigmarole, I thought I'd give all methods a go & see what works best for future crops!

Well, boiling and squeezing sounds a sight simpler to me than some of the curing chambers I've seen - so those pages would be welcome.

PM on its way!!!!!

Mike

Sounds like making a block of ... um.... naughty stuff! Reading Wikipedia on curing methods it never mentioned anything complicated like that - just hang up to dry somewhere airy and sunny for cigarette tobacco. Have you tried just smoking a crumbled leaf yet Julie? (we need you to be our guinea pig )

'Squeak, squeak'!!

I'll check one out later on then!

The idea of the boiling & squeezing is to remove some of the nicotine - it may or may not be necessary, but that's why I'm trying several methods this year. Once I have followed each method, I shall try each baccy & then I will know what t do in future years - well, that was the plan anyway.

I scanned the ciggy baccy part of the book last night for Mike, and am pleased to say that my reader program kicked in & worked a treat so it's nicely packaged in a Word document. If anyone else would like it, give me a shout & I will email it to you.

Once it's properly light, I shall go get the birds up & I'll grab a leaf from the hayshed & report back - morning!!

Okay so here's a pretty comprehensive forum on growing it etc if you haven't found one already - strictly for the die-hard fans!

http://www.howtogrowtobacco.com/forum/i ... 151ec8822e

The results of a bit of overnight Google research ...

Boiling tobacco certainly works. All curing methods (including just hanging the leaves up to dry naturally) are in reality methods of using controlled temperature and humidity to a) allow the leaves to dry without moulding and b) reduce the amount of nicotine so that heads do not get blown off. The flavour happens to improve during the process. If the balance between temperature and humidity is not ideal you still get tobacco - it may not be quite how you want it to be, though.

Then it dawned on me - I'd seen the boiling malarkey before. It's how to make a very efficient insecticide based on nicotine. To make that as efficient as possible, you want as much nicotine as possible out of those leaves. But as a smoker, you want a reasonable amount left in the leaves. Julie's document does say that the method used may not leave enough for some smokers, so I assume it makes very mild tobacco. Logic tells me that playing with the boiling time should enable the production of tobacco at any desired strength - the only problem being finding the perfect boiling period.

Over to all you boilers, then

Mike

I read the article (thanks Julie) but will need to read it again a few times to really get my head around it. I love the fact you flavour with things like molasses etc but wouldn't have a CLUE what to use!

Also the bit at the end where it says it needs to be toasted - I imagine for someone like me who can't bear toasted American/European flavour cigs then I forget that bit?

WTF, just read about nicotine being in tomato plant leaves... and people chewing it / taking it as snuff...

Just came across the same thing myself. The claim is that all nightshades (tobacco, tomato, potato, peppers) have nicotine in the leaves. I believe that as far as it goes. It's what else is contained in the leaves that would worry me.

Mike