Tobacco Stripping

Well, it certainly looks like we won't be needing a sled this Christmas but we may need a boat. The rain is coming down in buckets and more coming. It makes last minute errands a mess. Somehow shopping in a snow is much more fun than slopping in the rain.

On the farm rain also means something else. It means tobacco is in "case" and everyone is busy "stripping". For those of you who have followed our son's adventure into tobacco farming, I'll try to explain.

After the tobacco has grown and been cut it is "housed" or hung in the barn to air cure. Over time the tobacco becomes dry and brown and is "cured". Then it is time to take it from the barn and remove the leaves from the stalk in preparation to be sold. To do this without causing it to crumble to dust, you wait until it rains and the moisture has softened the leaves. When it is soft or in "case" the plants can be handled without damage.

So on rainy days you take down the tobacco you hung in the fall and load it onto a wagon. This is called "bulking" tobacco. ( See how much you are learning?) Now begins the process called "stripping". In this the leaves are "stripped" from the plant by hand and sorted into piles depending on their quality or location on the plant. These are then put into a large box and compressed into a bale. The bale is taken to the warehouse and sold to the tobacco companies. At least you hope they buy it.

All of this means that you spend a lot of time in a semi-heated space cornered out of a barn or shed, stripping tobacco. It's not hard work but it is tedious and tiring. You spend long hours standing and doing monotonous repetitious movements. If you are doing it by yourself it is very boring, but thankfully it is mostly done in groups. When a group of farmers get together to help in a stripping room you can bet the tales will be long, tall and frequent. Sometimes I'm not sure if they are working or partying from the sounds coming from the barn. Gales of laughter and whoops of mirth tend to drift from the door. No one is immune from being the butt of the joke or the point of their story. If you have a thin skin I would strongly advise you not to enter the space.

Believe me, spending 8 hours a day in a small space with no entertainment but each other builds a bond and closeness that rivals living in a sorority house!

I would repeat some of the stories that are being told but my computer would probably melt.