I've been waking up at 6:00 am the last few days.
It may be just plain laziness, or maybe forgetfulness--I can't remember which. It's time to start harvesting and housing my tobacco. And yet, there are still hanging stalks in the shed from last year's crop.
If I've ignored those stalks all year, they must be crummy. But if I stumble my way through the debris and junk of the shed floor, and get close enough to actually read the tags nailed to each stalk, I always find myself exclaiming something about how I could possibly have overlooked such a treasure. It's like discovering some crisp, high denomination currency in a dresser drawer.
This stuff should have been stripped and tied into hands last December, when the leaf would remain in case for days on end. But now, in late July in Virginia, there's only a tiny window of time each day when the temperature and the dew point are nearly the same. And it's only about 15 to 30 minutes, between pre-dawn and sunrise.
Red circles indicate the available stripping time.
If I wake up at 6:00 am, dress, then go directly to the shed (before my coffee!), I can strip and tie hands of tobacco during only that brief moment before the temperature rises enough to dry the tobacco. That gives me enough time to strip and tie 6 to 10 stalks. And only if I strip and tie really fast. It brings to mind bigbonner's recounting of the tobacco tying contests in Kentucky. Speed really does matter--at least for me in late July.
Yesterday was a bonanza of Long Red.
A couple of more days, and I'll be done with it. There's still some PA Red, Baldió Vera, Coroja (Cuba) and Little Dutch. This morning I stripped and tied six stalks of Swarr-Hibshman.
And now, for that mug of coffee.
Bob
