2015 Broadleaf

In our travels through the ct valley we see the growers hard at work seeding there green houses. preparing there plants and very anxious to start the new season.  

Tobacco 2014

The Tobacco growers in the C.t. Valley have packaged there crops and now they wait to sell there crops. Good luck friends !

Its March the farmer's are eagerly waiting for the perfect growing season. Talking with a few broadleaf grower's over the Winter during there down time some are true skiers others are true Nascar Fans.They load up the bus (really have to get a pic and post) and travel from C.T. to Daytona Florida  every year. True race fans !!! Other growers never leave there farms they are truly happiest right at home on there Farms. My goal this year is to get out and blog more about not just the crop but the people them self's. There is lots of work to do with broadleaf green houses starting in a few weeks. Thanks for reading and enjoy your day.   

mediating

Working @ Enfield Shade Tobacco Company in Enfield 1999 as a manager. Daily operations of growing the crop @ times was the easy part. The daily grind of being the go to person ,problem solver, Boss For  hundreds of people was challenging but so so enjoyable. Some years stick in my mind more than others especially 1999. What a Hot Hot year and a very dry growing season with lots of irrigating that year. There was just no rain ponds were empty We as farmers cant wait for rain hell we dug ponds. Had wells drilled. Just way to many hours. On the farm we hired local people also off shore labor and housed them in labor camps. Reason for camps is it's very tough to find people to work on a farm and do manual labor even on weekends. 70 hrs a week was a average week at "Shade".It was a Hot afternoon in May. Every day i am hearing more and more the men in the camps are at war with each other. Knifes are being drawn @ nite. Tempers over flowing. The camp supervisor was just to over whelmed. Action had to be taken and taken quickly. These guy's are going to kill each other. Really ! Bang i got the answer.I called over Jose and Milton. You guy's are doing a great job i appreciate the hard work every one is doing. I will be taking the camp guys out tonight and celebrate. Us  Us  go together they said , ya man we are going to out tonight. A new club opened . I'm driving the bus I don't "drink". Who ever would like to go the bus is leaving @ 8:00. Ok Ok they said. That night we rolled out at 8:00.  42 of us !! Every had a blast that night. They sure became a family from then on !

Windsor Shade Tobacco Company

 The Windsor Shade Tobacco on King Spring rd in Windsor locks CT has been opened for 100 years.  Shade Growers are all independent growers then partners in a co-op to market and sell shade leafs to cigar manufactures around the world.   I'm just wanting to show my appreciation to the growers for there dedication of excellence for the production of this cigar shade wrapper. We appreciate these amazing growers of The CT Valley such as Mulnite's ,Christens, Browns, Marcowski's, Arnolds, Jarmocs, Casco, Conleaf, Non member producers Enfield Shade Tobacco, Miners, Calvin Arnold. of course daily operations  John.  "Thank you Growers." 

negotiating broadleaf price

As a former grower of Ct Broadleaf  negotiating the sale of the crop was possible some years and other years the tobacco buyers would just walk away and not negotiate at all. Gain 1 dollar the very next year loose 1 dollar. Great memories lots of laughs.The last few years we grew the buyers would come to Ct and buy our Broadleaf crop first.   Good product / setting the price for the Ct valley growers. It sure was an honor to produce the world famous Ct Broad leaf !!!   

Broadleaf is completed

The last shed of broadleaf has been packaged in Suffield, C.t.  Now it is time to sell the broadleaf crop. There are 3 main Players.  Altadis former ( Consoidated Cigar ) .  General Cigar . Then Bill and Foster. and Lancaster leaf  is the representative for Altadis ( The in-between guy.)  The tobacco Buyers Follow the crops very closely through out the growing year. 2013 broadleaf sale price is not set by growers but set by the buyers !!! Yes that's right farmers put up the money take all the risk and they don't set prices. Price's are set by the buyers. This week some farmers sell there crop's my guess is $6.70 -  $  .50   6.70 is for premium crops.  Poor crops that are damaged by weather or disease sell for .50    There will be a few blogs about this great topic.