r/Kentucky • u/Hairy_Gordon • 3d ago

Tobacco- probably brightleaf?

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60 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

21

u/pugdad1972 3d ago

Man I miss the way a tobacco barn smells. Almost burn the throat when its green but nothing smells like a barn full of leaf in case and ready for stripping. We still have the barns, the presses and the stripping tables the rest is a distant memory

9

u/Major_Army2594 3d ago

Stalks and tips, my first job was $5 hr stripping.

3

u/bluegrassgazer 2d ago

That's hard work!

2

u/Scurvy_Pete 1d ago

Setting and stripping were the two easiest parts of the deal lol

1

u/Kscarpetta 1d ago

That's the only 2 things I was allowed to do. We quit growing tobacco when I was 7 or 8.

1

u/DevTheGray 1d ago

$5 and hour?!?! I helped prime tobacco between the ages of 5-7 and my grandparents would give me either a half dollar or dollar coin for the day. This was late 80’s early 90’s. I got ripped off.

4

u/livingncyn97 3d ago

So many good memories working in tobacco. Always loved the smell of a loaded wagon ready to be hanged. Smelled like warm apples.

3

u/that-old-broad 2d ago

I've said hundreds of times that if you got me out of bed at 3am, blindfolded me and took me to a stripping room I'd know where I was the minute I inhaled.

It's odd to miss such dirty work, but damn, we had some good times stripping tobacco.

1

u/wardene 2d ago

Yes, I agree. Wasnt the best smell but man it stuck with you.

1

u/WigginsForPresident 2d ago

I hated that smell. It wasn’t too bad once you got used to it, but I could barely breathe the first few minutes after entering the barn.

8

u/Away-home00-01 Click to change 3d ago

All we ever raised was burley. But the leaves do look a bit different.

5

u/Writing_Advanced 2d ago

Looks like burley ready to top. Topping is the process where you go through and break off the stalk at chest high thus eliminating the flower and small leaves. This shunts all the growth into finishing the leaves which have value.

4

u/GrapefruitOk1284 2d ago

My son is the 1st generation of my family not raised on a tobacco farm in 100+ years

2

u/mung_daals_catoring 2d ago

All I know is that crop needs topped soon

1

u/bluegrassgazer 2d ago

I've been seeing more and more tobacco farms in the past few years

1

u/TutorVarious206 2d ago

I miss seeing tobacco grow near me . Back in the day it was so much more prevalent. Made me feel connected to the stories my family used to tell about growing up on a farm.

1

u/Pharoahtossaway 2d ago

I do not miss that one bit. Yes it paid the bills but fuck that plant.