2018

The valley is having a banner growing season.  long cold winter short Spring Healthy Hot Summer.Perfect amount of rain for growth and WEIGHT . Tobacco is sold by the pound. I sure have to post the harvesting pictures. So enjoy seeing the old red international tractor's sputtering down the road.Thanks for reading !  2018

2017 broadleaf

 Broadleaf growers are getting geared up for the new growing season. Wrenches are being turned on tractors the wood stoves are roaring. Yesterday I stopped at my favorite farm in Enfield. Entering the garage/tobacco storage building was refreshing.Seeing our local growers Izac and Steve maintaining the fleet of fifty vintage"red IH tractors". And yes you Deer lovers plenty of green tractors too. I must say growers are very very optimistic on this growing season. Just standing in the football field size building with the raw bailed tobacco aroma was simply Heaven. The tradition love risk and reward can only be appreciated when your boots are in the dirt on site on a farm. This time of year i always get itchy to start growing again !!! Thanks for reading!!!

Enfield Tobacco

 The world's premier Broadleaf cigar wrapper is being harvested in Ct. Our proud growers from Southwick threw Suffield from Enfield to Glastonbury are bring in there crops. There vintage tractors are cruising down the road's at 10 mph. Alright stepping out to take broadleaf blog pic's post them soon. thanks for viewing     

Glastonbury Tobacco

Driving through the quite town of Glastonbury Ct I spotted the Broadleaf fields. My Heart started raising. These fields were beautiful. The plant's flower's just started to fill the field 40 days old. The sheds were close to the fields LESS road travel !!! Can't wait to spin back in 3 weeks for harvest. Thanks for reading.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Happy New Year

Happy New year ! 2015  At a local mobile gas station while pumping gas I had a nice conversation with Mr. Gary Raffia. A local Enfield Broad Grower. The talk was pricing per pound Gary was happy with pricing shipping was still unknown. Best wishes for the new year friends !  

Rain

Late August early September has brought Ct Valley Broadleaf very little rain.As the broadleaf is curing the tobacco cures good with moisture going into the leaves for a day or two then drying for 4 days. In New England October is a rainy month. The growers dry the tobacco with pro pain burners or charcoal. 

readers

We are so happy to see people from all over the World reading our Broadleaf Blog. Here are just a few Countries we are thanking  Russia, China, Malaysia, Dominica Republic, Canada, Africa, France, Germany, Mexico, Thanks For reading !!!

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.   

C.t. Valley

    Geography time .The Ct broadleaf cigar we all ask for at our local cigar shop does not always come from Connecticut. Massachusetts grows many acres of Broadleaf. The (Tobacco Valley) stretches from the Vermont boarder threw Massachusetts into Half of  Connecticut. So the Next time your in your local cigar shop ask for a Massachusetts broadleaf wrapped cigar !!!   

Ct Shade

Since the 1950's the Ct Shade growing acres have decreased .These are hard words to type well here it is "The Shade market is officially gone" ! Ct Shade seed is grown in other countries. At a lower price .

 

bump

The First leaf from 2013 broadleaf crop was framed on 9-28-2013. 

Leaves

Owen Jarmoc showing his premium Tobacco.

Bailing box used to package broadleaf

Packing the broadleaf

All the leaf's are inspected leaf by leaf before getting packaged.

Leafs are covered by paper and plastic.

This is a conventional Broadleaf sorting bench used in New England.

steaming

High out put Broadleaf steamer.  Nick named Big Blue This morning the owners Steve and Owen Started big Blue at 4am blew steam for 3 Hours. Tobacco conditions were good they called in the staff and 2hrs later the broadleaf was taken down and placed piles 

This steamer burns 30 gallons of fuel an hour.  WOW  gets thirsty using 300 gallons of water

in one hour !!!

 Steam Bellows out the eves of the shed

Steaming a shed to take down tobacco is an Art. 

 This man uses welding gloves to handle the steam hoses moving  left to right up and down half the shed. As the sun starts to rise the east side of the shed needs 60 percent of the steam because the sun dry's the tobacco with the morning sun light.

Lath by lath men handle the leaves with care placing into a pile. Steam is two thing's in the shed Wet and Hot.  There is a balance of steaming to make the leaf pliable and not wet moist not Wet !!! Crops have been ruined during the 2000's tobacco boom.When taken down too wet tobacco Rots and the crop isn't marketable. So the grower Loose Big Money!!!  All is good here at Jarmoc's  the staff is happy the crop is fa nominal. The shed is completed by 9 am on a Saturday morning. Most people are still sleeping and these 14 men just took down 5 acres of tobacco. Simply Amazing !!! 

blog pictures

The family and i are stepping out to take blog photo's of a tobacco steamer used to moisten broadleaf when the tobacco is dry.