From Steaming Beds to Baling Leaves..The Growing of Cigar Tobacco in Lancaster County, PA Amishland

Growing cigar tobacco is extremely labor intensive. Planting, weeding, harvesting, hanging, and grading requires many many hours of human labor. Here we watch from the beginning to the end.

[@rebeccabowman6577]

Thanks so much for sharing. It's been neat to see the stuff they do in the barn that normally you can't see. Love watching you videos. Grateful that an amish farmer allows you to do this so we can see.

[@LancoAmish]

Thank you for watching.

[@mrtimemaker]

Dreadfully hard work from start to finish. Thanks for showing it all to us.

[@clairewood7416]

All tobacco agriculture is extremely labor intensive! From seeding the plant beds to the warehouse floor is close to 13 months. Very little of the process is handled by machine. The hardest work is in the summer, which in Kentucky is miserable.

[@LancoAmish]

Thanks so much for watching and commenting. Both are greatly appreciated.

[@clairewood7416]

In Western KY, we grow a variety of tobacco but our area is best known for dark fired tobacco. The leaves are hung in the barn, then the barn is closed to keep sunlight out. Large piles of sawdust from aromatic woods are smouldered for several weeks; the leaf absorbs the aromas (pecan, apple, cherry, peach; sometimes brown sugar is added as well ) The smoke escapes through roof vents and the space between the wall planks. (looks like the barn is on fire). This is mostly grown for pipe and chewing tobacco use.
It is only grown in southwestern Kentucky; the region is known as the "dark patch". I do not like tobacco at all, however when the barns are firing the scent of all that aromatic wood floats in the air for weeks. To me it is the smell of home and I love it. I would definitely buy candles which smelled like a dark fired barn!
Tobacco is still a guaranteed cash crop in the regions where it is still grown.

[@LancoAmish]

@@clairewood7416, I would love to be able to experience that. Thanks for sharing.

[@erichaskell]

Is this the same three horse, one mule team we viewed in previous videos? As for comments about tobacco, I have very personally seen the great harm it does so to all the farmers growing it: its time to move on to another crop. Humanity doesn't have to have it.

[@LancoAmish]

Thanks for watching.