behike
Well-Known Member
I had the good fortune of attending a tour of the Jarmoc Farm in Enfield, Connecticut, which was hosted by Steve Jarmoc and Nick Melillo (Foundation Cigar Co. founder, who is from CT and started the company there). With the exception of Cuba, CT is one of the oldest places in the world growing tobacco. The Caribbean and Central and South American regions really took off when Communist Cuba seized their farms. Steve was very personable, and really gave a great overview of everything he showed us.
The main event was hosted at the Connecticut Valley Tobacco Museum in Windsor, which is on the land of an old 500 acre tobacco farm and has a significant collection of tobacco farming equipment etc. In attendance were 2 fine gentlemen who used to work on the farm as well as one very nice woman who's job was to sew the leaves. I got a tour of the farm exhibits by Duane Adams, a board member who worked on the farm in different roles for 49 years, which was amazing as he had a vast amount of knowledge and information to share with us. I also learned that the very last Connecticut shade wrapper farm in the States is Dwight Arnold Farms in the great state of Massachusetts (they have a 25 acre field in Southwick). In 1921, between CT and MA, there were 41,200 acres of CT Shade Tobacco.
Foundation provided the swag pictured below to everyone attending, and I also purchased the book "Connecticut Valley Tobbaco" by Brianna E. Dunlap. She was also at the event and was a wealth of knowledge.
This is going to become an annual event, and I highly recommend it to anyone in the area. The event was capped at 51 people, and according to their president they turned away a number of people, so I wouldn't be surprised if they make it even larger next year.
I plan to upload some more photos later, but below is a picture of the Foundation swag (less the one cigar I smoked).
Most importantly, the Connecticut River Valley is Red Sox country; they hate the stinking Yankees!
Fun Fact: raw tobacco seeds (i.e., not ones that have been palletized with clay) are so small that 27, 207 seeds fit in a leveled-off teaspoon. I forget the true number, but there are roughly 181k pelletized seeds in a single pound.
The main event was hosted at the Connecticut Valley Tobacco Museum in Windsor, which is on the land of an old 500 acre tobacco farm and has a significant collection of tobacco farming equipment etc. In attendance were 2 fine gentlemen who used to work on the farm as well as one very nice woman who's job was to sew the leaves. I got a tour of the farm exhibits by Duane Adams, a board member who worked on the farm in different roles for 49 years, which was amazing as he had a vast amount of knowledge and information to share with us. I also learned that the very last Connecticut shade wrapper farm in the States is Dwight Arnold Farms in the great state of Massachusetts (they have a 25 acre field in Southwick). In 1921, between CT and MA, there were 41,200 acres of CT Shade Tobacco.
Foundation provided the swag pictured below to everyone attending, and I also purchased the book "Connecticut Valley Tobbaco" by Brianna E. Dunlap. She was also at the event and was a wealth of knowledge.
This is going to become an annual event, and I highly recommend it to anyone in the area. The event was capped at 51 people, and according to their president they turned away a number of people, so I wouldn't be surprised if they make it even larger next year.
I plan to upload some more photos later, but below is a picture of the Foundation swag (less the one cigar I smoked).
Most importantly, the Connecticut River Valley is Red Sox country; they hate the stinking Yankees!
Fun Fact: raw tobacco seeds (i.e., not ones that have been palletized with clay) are so small that 27, 207 seeds fit in a leveled-off teaspoon. I forget the true number, but there are roughly 181k pelletized seeds in a single pound.
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