A couple weeks ago I posted a picture of a tobacco field that was about ready to be cut. Yesterday while bicycling we passed folks doing the hard work. But then, raising tobacco is nothing but hard work.
No frost here for another month at least. What you are seeing in the picture is the first part of the drying process. The plant grows tall then in late summer to early fall, is cut, by hand, at the base and skewered on a 4' wooden stake stuck in the ground where the plant was growing. The tobacco will stay in the field a few days to begin the drying process. Then, as seen in the picture, folks will gather the skewered plants and move them to a tobacco drying barn where the will hang, upside down, until auction time. It's been done just about the same way since the first settlement at Jamestown, VA.
In this day and age, one would think that the harvest would be mechanized. I guess the leaves are not strong enough to withstand being dealt with by harvesters, so, they continue with manual harvesting.
Thanks for the information. I know you posted about the stakes but I didn't pick up what they were for.
Sun curing is for oriental tobacco for high sugar content. I don't think that goes into cigarettes. Other types of tobacco are harvested straight to a air drying barn.
Signs of fall here too. Beets being pulled. Corn drying down. Beans just about ready and I even saw one field of beans being combined yesterday. Leaves now showing signs of starting to turn. Had one cool spell. Lots of fog, etc, etc.
Looks like summer is making one last effort to hang around today and tomorrow, then temps drop to upper 60s, and a few lower 70s, then the downward temp slide starts in earnest.
stupid warm and humid here still. Only signs of fall so far are some leaves turning, and starting to see some of the ground cover dying.
Same here. Temps well above normal for this time of year. I usually fire up the shoulder stove the last week of September . Not looking that way this year. Even the leaves are behind. Usually by the 15th they have started.
