tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13569819.post9049824431467985489..comments2024-03-28T13:47:29.519-04:00Comments on Quiltville's Quips & Snips!!: North Carolina Harvest Time!Bonnie K. Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16377635115790685301noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13569819.post-47812987330402949792012-08-16T23:48:23.303-04:002012-08-16T23:48:23.303-04:00I live in SC, not far from Charlotte, NC... My cou...I live in SC, not far from Charlotte, NC... My cousins lived in tobacco country in Windell, NC and worked the tobacco fields and the drying of the tobacco in the sheds... We use to go visit them.. They were poor as church mice and lived in a shack in the very middle of the fields.. It's amazing how you can go into those sheds now after many decades of non use and still smell the tobacco... GailAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13569819.post-89312358936770032072012-08-16T22:53:32.447-04:002012-08-16T22:53:32.447-04:00It's not the tobacco that's the problem, i...It's not the tobacco that's the problem, it's what is added to it! We seem to be going backwards with our modern technology.hehjudehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11159096510210999594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13569819.post-30756614361810279212012-08-16T16:51:57.076-04:002012-08-16T16:51:57.076-04:00My family grew Perique tobacco in St. James Parish...My family grew Perique tobacco in St. James Parish Louisiana (the only place in the world where Perique will grow) for nearly 200 years. I spent summers with my grandparents and worked the "fabrique" -- the process of removing, by hand, the leaf from the stem and packing the leaves into barrels for curing. Hard, hot, and dirty work. As my grandmother used to say when someone complained about how tough they had it, "tu fais besoin un bon fabrique" (you need to make a good fabrique). If you are ever in Durham you might enjoy a visit to Duke Homestead. Before the school system I work for began cutting back on field trips, I used to go there every year. The museum includes exhibits on tobacco growing in a number of places, including St. James Parish. The men in the picture are my mother's cousins.<br /><br />Cindy in NCAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13569819.post-68852035322415076322012-08-16T14:55:53.382-04:002012-08-16T14:55:53.382-04:00A good friend of mine has family history in NC tob...A good friend of mine has family history in NC tobacco farming communities... He has a table on which we now play poker, about 3 times per year when the traveling poker game is at his house, that was once in the family owned tobacco processing plant.<br /><br />It is scarred from the beating it took from knives cutting leaves of tobacco, and it is stained with the oils from the plants being cut on it. It is a "beautiful" ugly old work table with a lot of history. His wife doesn't like it, but he won't part with it.<br /><br />And YES it has been a good summer.... I got to meet YOU.<br /><br />Paul<br />www.OutnumberedQuilter.com<br />Paulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13624140507953560723noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13569819.post-7131404855524759932012-08-16T14:23:05.255-04:002012-08-16T14:23:05.255-04:00I would have never recognized that as tobacco as I...I would have never recognized that as tobacco as I have never seen it in a field!!Lorihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12460244411628464458noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13569819.post-79492808853012378512012-08-16T11:25:18.813-04:002012-08-16T11:25:18.813-04:00Here in Massachusetts tobacco is grown inthe Conne...Here in Massachusetts tobacco is grown inthe Connecticut river/Pioneer Valley for use as the outer wrapping of cigars. When I lived out there many years ago one could see the tobacco barns (we called them tobacco sheds) full of the drying leaves. I am planning to do a Tobacco Road Quilt and calling it Route 116 - that's where I saw my first tobacco shed!trishhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12333075513427923416noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13569819.post-22622656592686831632012-08-16T09:24:31.295-04:002012-08-16T09:24:31.295-04:00farmers have a tough life, even if it isn't fo...farmers have a tough life, even if it isn't for a crop that can be so damaging to the body. right now I'm being treated for COPD, I've only ever been a 2nd hand smoker. I catch everything that goes around....<br />I hope that some other food crop can take over that area. <br />However History, is History. I know it won't go away anytime soon, and maybe they will find it is a cure for CA in it.....Carolyn Sullivanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16591809412054783126noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13569819.post-19367774786300338412012-08-16T09:06:50.211-04:002012-08-16T09:06:50.211-04:00I remember the smell, from when I lived in NC. I l...I remember the smell, from when I lived in NC. I lived closer to Durham.Debrahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05880202683828444520noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13569819.post-23959967943287541822012-08-16T08:52:15.970-04:002012-08-16T08:52:15.970-04:00Have to agree with most about the use of tobacco -...Have to agree with most about the use of tobacco - but if it wasn't tobacco, it would be something else. There is a heritage behind the tobacco farming and that has to count for something. Thank you for giving us a bit of American pride this morning.Katie M.https://www.blogger.com/profile/09538545754383438552noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13569819.post-37673070664365962152012-08-16T08:49:18.946-04:002012-08-16T08:49:18.946-04:00This brought back memmories of this yankee who liv...This brought back memmories of this yankee who lived in a rental house in the middle of a tobacco field. One year I decided to ask for a job and I was hired to "hand" the tobacco. It was the hardest work, for the least amount of pay that I did in my entire life. These folks work very very hard for the income they get from this crop. Thanks Bonnie and Dawn. Bobbie Spann, Dallas, GA.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13569819.post-65988114137820883822012-08-16T08:34:38.728-04:002012-08-16T08:34:38.728-04:00I love everything about farming. I may not agree w...I love everything about farming. I may not agree with tobacco use, but it is how that farmer makes a living. He has to make a living some how. I respect all the hard work farmers put into their crops. Not many people would want to do so much manual labor each day. A town in UT is battling with farmer's right now over a major freeway. The farmers don't want to lose land, but the residents (40+ families) don't want to lose their homes . The freeway even has an exit ramp planned to go into an elementary school parking lot and circle the school, if the farmer's get their way. Sometimes, it is for the best, not always.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13569819.post-72608972164316277602012-08-16T08:31:13.690-04:002012-08-16T08:31:13.690-04:00It is pretty amazing when you think of it from an ...It is pretty amazing when you think of it from an agricultural point of view. Tobacco was actually the first cash crop in the colonies. Originally, cotton could only be grown near the coast as it needed the humidity. Once a new plant type was developed that could go in drier climates, and Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin to remove the seeds, cotton took over as the cash crop of the south.<br /><br />Ok, I'll take off my teacher hat now.. I don't teach this until after Christmas :o)<br /><br />Hugs!Nancyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03716634446408588798noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13569819.post-160376193513842042012-08-16T08:23:56.808-04:002012-08-16T08:23:56.808-04:00That brings back some memories! One summer our fa...That brings back some memories! One summer our family road trip took us to NC to visit a friend of my father's who was a tobacco farmer. The sight and smell of those leaves hanging and drying in his barn is still quite clear. We were given a couple leaves to take home to MI with us. I took mine for Show and Tell.<br />I also recall staying for dinner that evening and being served okra for the first time. I will NEVER forget that. I didn't like it one bit!Sharonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15877216815959832221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13569819.post-81137035827089878342012-08-16T08:20:56.513-04:002012-08-16T08:20:56.513-04:00Thank you, Bonnie, for honoring our heritage. I&#...Thank you, Bonnie, for honoring our heritage. I'm sad seeing all the farms disappear...swallowed up hy shopping malls and housing developments. Farming is difficult in the best of times and for our ancestors, it was the only way to survive. As Dawn Marie said in her comment, they deseve respect...and i don't know a better steward of the land than a farmer. Those of us who still farm know it's only a matter of time before we too will have to give up something we love...every day is a struggle. Thanks again for helping us remember why we do what we do.Jo C.https://www.blogger.com/profile/01029294755913641283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13569819.post-18059673537785173122012-08-16T07:55:33.502-04:002012-08-16T07:55:33.502-04:00interesting. don't know that i've ever se...interesting. don't know that i've ever seen a tobacco field. the tobacco story sound alot like what i saw happening in california with the orchards......the orchards were going out so houses could be build. i grew up at the edge of orchards like the house at the edge of the tobacco field. i walked home from school threw the orchards. sad to see all that go. that's our history, but with change comes the making of new history. thanks for sharing the tobacco fields. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13569819.post-76109260625583263532012-08-16T07:30:54.433-04:002012-08-16T07:30:54.433-04:00I have roots in North Carolina as well. My grandp...I have roots in North Carolina as well. My grandparents used to have tobacco fields all around them. Slowly, those fields have given way to homes. There's a lot of fields that moved to other crops but there's also a lot that moved to non-farming uses. You're so right that the growing and curing of tobacco has been a way of life in NC for centuries. We're seeing that change in this generation. Some of that is good, but we're also losing to. There's been a loss of revenue, farms and jobs. Those that still farm tobacco do so because it's their life and it's what they know. They deserve respect for how they tend the land and keep old traditions alive. Thanks for such a wonderful treating of this. Dawnmarie's Lifehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06033691473942743491noreply@blogger.com