Malevolent Milton has shot up since I first posted progress on my tobacco growing experiment a month ago and so has her Ashite Minions although they have now been separated.
I gave two away to friends who were very grateful and excited to receive them but they accepted the gift on condition that when their plants grow to seed, they spread the love and plant them in the countryside, in parks, and wherever they find a good spot to enable others to find them and share them too.
That's two new members of The Resistance and I see that Frank Davis has also got involved and is reminded of his wayward yoof.
The first couple of tiny leaves I wrapped in damp disposable kitchen towel but that wasn't successful in curing them. It just made them go wet and dry without much change. They did turn colour and shrank a lot and when completely dry, I managed to mix what was produced - a sliver of tobacco - into one my commercially produced tobacco roll ups but the taste was indistinct. I guess there just wasn't enough to make a judgement.
The next leaf I picked - pictured above - was hung on a wire coat hanger by a split paper clip. The effects you can see there are after five days of just hanging naturally. Sadly, on that fifth day, just after the photo was taken, the leaf fell off and landed in my watering can which had a bit of water in it. I managed to fish it out undamaged but it was soaked. I dried off the excess as best as I could and put it back to hang.
After 8 days it has gone darker in colour and now has one of Malevolent Milton's bigger leaves, picked yesterday, to keep it company. I will continue to watch progress.
There are loads of growing and curing tips over at The Bolton Smoker's Club which I have watched avidly. The next three leaves that turn yellow on Malevolent Milton will be packaged as Junican suggests but first I thought I'd try the natural method of curing which seems to be to just hang them for a long time.
I'll also leave one on the plant to go dark brown and shriveled naturally following a suggestion from Leg Iron and just see which method works best for me.
Hopefully all my mistakes will be made on Milton and the real and serious effort of growing and curing can focus on the Minions.
I currently have three in one huge pot now but one of those is to go to another friend interested in joining The Resistance, and will be potted in time for Christmas, and one will go into another large pot to grow separately to the one final Minion that will remain.
I guess my next update will be when I finally have enough cured home grown tobacco to put in a roll up.