It's time to cure your harvest.
There are multiple methods that work satisfactorily for curing tobacco. Among these, there are particular methods that lend themselves toward large scale operations & methods that are suitable for hobbyist. For personal use, the pressure canner method is preferred & we use this method on an even larger scale.
When leaves are fully dried & crispy, remove the stems & large veins. Crush the dried leaves with your hands into a bucket (filler, snuff, & chew). Use a spray bottle to dampen the crushed leaves & pack them loosely into quart sized canning jars. Put more water in the canner than you normally would for canning. Weight the jars to hold them down by placing another rack or a plate on top of the bands & something heavy enough to keep the jars from floating. Process under 15 pounds of pressure for as long as you can without running out of water in the canner. 8 hours is the necessary processing time, but this will likely have to be completed in two 4 hour runs to prevent the canner from running out of water.
Wrappers have to be treated differently. To cure tobacco leaves for use as wrappers, spray the whole leaf with a fine mist to dampen. Allow moistened leaves to rest long enough to become pliable, then carefully remove the stem with a razor blade. Seal wrappers up, stacked inside a large sealed plastic bag over night. Remove the leaves from the bag & place them in a casserole dish with a tight oven proof lid. Bake in the oven at 150 degrees F for 8 hours or until dark brown, checking regularly to make sure they aren't going to completely dry out. If your oven does not turn down to 150 degrees F, set it to it's lowest setting & crack the door.
There are other options for curing your homegrown tobacco such as flue curing & heap curing, but these methods are better suited for large operations.
Growing tobacco is an extremely rewarding venture even if you don't use it in the end, but using your own tobacco is the icing on the cake when all the work comes to fruition.
