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I suspect that the issues of raising and processing tobacco are more ‘lost’ or forgotten, than real.

Many herbs, vegetables, fruits, jams(!?), and other produce require fairly intricate processes to preserve and prepare them.

Unlike tobacco companies, you wouldn’t need the shellac, the perfumes, nor the added nicotine. I believe production tobacco begins with hanging the leaves to cure to a particular stage, and particular moisture content. I imagine that cigars have some tricks to them, but may not be much more than leaves rolled tightly, perhaps after some soaking, trimming, or drying stages. I recall Mark Twain got his start in literature, reading aloud to tables of people rolling cigars in a factory. I don’t want to trivialize the craftsmanship that can go into tobacco and tobacco products – witness the enduring allure of Cuban cigars, the wide difference selection and techniques can vary the quality of tomatoes.

But when the tax on cigarettes here begins at $1 a pack for commercial product, I wonder that people don’t grow their own. Moonshiner’s have a reputation for turning out private-still ‘whiskey’. Individuals have reputations for rough or smooth product. I imagine it would be the same for home grown tobacco. Growing conditions, strain selection, harvest techniques, and handling will all affect the product. For those interested in having fresh tobacco at moderate cost, for treating injuries, insect bites, and the other uses tobacco has been used for, as well as the recreation pipe, cigar, and small cigar smoker, the chewer, etc., the work has to be less than for making jams, jellies, and apricot pie. Well, the fresh apricot pie isn’t tedious, I enjoyed that, but canning the apricots first introduces a distinct layer of complexity to making the pie.

The old folks song about ‘can she bake a cherry pie, billy boy, billy, boy/can she bake a cherry pie, charming billy?’ comes to mind. Who knows? We may be dredging the old songs and stories for the hints and secrets of comfortable and secure living, back before the iPod and cheap energy.