Among our various homegrown products, tobacco was on the list this year. Okay, before you judge us for being politically incorrect, let me explain. It's just for stogies! Apparently, we're all about indulgences here and we figured, why stop with wine? Let's grow our own cigars! Well, not actually grow the cigars, but you know what I mean. I took this photo of the tobacco leaves drying out in our greenhouse last weekend.
Yes, this was one of my husband's crazy ideas and if you are like I was when he told me of his plans to grow tobacco leaves on our property, you likely have a few questions crossing your mind. Let me see if I can address them for you here:
Yes, it is perfectly legal to grow in Minnesota.
No, we don't plan to sell cigars with our wine, because,
Yes, we'd need yet another license to do that.
No, this picture is not of the tobacco that goes in the cigars.
Yes, these tobacco leaves will be used as the wrappers for the cigars.
No, neither of us are smokers.
Yes, Aaron enjoys a cigar now and then and,
Yes, sometimes I'll take a puff or two.
No, we've never rolled cigars before.
Yes, Aaron has done a lot of research on how to do it.
No, I am not a fan of his breath after he's smoked a stogie.*
No, I don't know what a Minnesota grown cigar will taste like, but
No, I'm not a cigar officianato who could tell the difference between this and a Cuban anyway.
Yes, we do plan to share cigars with friends who come to visit because,
Yes, we planted plenty of these plants out in our field to experiment with, which are,
Yes, actally really quite lovely looking tall flowering plants. Tobacco plants. Who knew?
No, they will not be ready to roll for another 3-6 months, but
Yes, we are prepared with some old fashioned cigar molds purchased from ebay.
Yes, I will do a post when we have our first rolled cigar and give a review.
*I've heard eating an apple helps cure (or at least counteract) cigar breath. Good thing we have apple trees too. I'll be testing out this theory.
If you have any other cigar breath cures, I'm all ears!