Well, we had an absolutely great time down in Conn at the Connecticut Valley Tobacco Museum today. It poured the entire twenty mile run from my house and I had real reservations about the day ahead. The tobacco museum itelf is located in a large public park which was formely a tobacco farm itself. There's a large barn filled with antique equipment as well as an annex with lots of cigar related parfanelia and a library. After arriving there and not seeing friends Eric or Merrick (SHPC), those there headed off by bus to a large tobacco farm in Enfield where various wrapper and filler is planted, harvested and dried. Finally, the rains stopped and the Boston guys, members of the "SHPC" as well as "The Brothers of the Leaf" showed up after getting stuck in major traffic on the Mass pike. They made a big entrance too, showing up on a tobacco cart pulled by the owner of the farm himself who took time out of his day to show us around.
We all got a real education seeing the whole process but I did feel bad for the poor workers working in the 90% sun for eight hours a day. This feeling was slightly eased when we found that the workers, mainly Jamacians get such a favourable exchange rate that they're able to live really well back at home during the offseason. If you're interested, that rate is about 79/1 vs. the Jamacian dollar! Supposedly, they fight it out for a chance to come north to work the fields.
After our return lunch was served and it was ample! Terriaki chicken breast, hot dogs, hamburgers and salads as well as those VERY welcome cold Buds that seem to taste even better after you've been outside in such heat. After lunch, cigar goodie bags were handed out thanks to one of our events sponsors, Karen from The Cigar Room 2 in Agawam, Ma. This is truly a great shop and lounge and I would HIGHLY recommend a visit if you ever happen to be out in these parts.
Our co sponsor, Jay who runs the museum itself hosted a raffle in which Carl, a Boston guy won a nice box of ten Cohiba Toros (much to the dissgust of both Eric and myself : ) Afterwards, we hung around and talked polictics (mainly conservative lol) smoked cigars and generally enjoyed the day. Shortly afterwards a cigar roller came from out east and made handmade stoggies for the crowd. I had never seen a whole stick made from start to finish and certainly NEVER by such a beautiful girl to boot! Of course I bought a bunch to stash away for later.
The entire day was an absolute blast and thankfully the foul weather moved east and away from us. I have no doubt that this yearly event will become a mid summers ritual for me and I hope that even more folks decide to make it one of there's in the years to come...
