Return to the tobacco plantation. Time to relax tensions

Hello friends of HiveGarden. It is a pleasure to introduce you to my first post in this community. I want to do it by telling you about a routine that I do from time to time during this season because it helps me to unload tensions.

What does it consist of?... visiting my paternal grandfather's tobacco farm. Well, not only visiting it, but also doing some work on it. I can't compare myself with the workers who dedicate themselves to these tasks, but rather I do it, as I said, to relax from the tensions of the city and because it brings back beautiful memories of my childhood.

My childhood was spent in this place that I present to you. I remember that since I was a child, my cousins and I spent our free time from school in my grandfather's fields. He was practically a tobacco farmer, his father was also a vega farmer and although my grandfather demanded his 5 children to study, he also instilled in them the love for the land and for making it produce.

There were times when it was more of a necessity. My father and uncles had to dedicate their time off from work to cultivate the land to produce the rice and beans they would consume during the year. Those were hard times. My cousins and I used to go with them on those weekend chores, even though we were just running errands. We were kids, but that helped us learn to love the land.

Well, after this introduction I want to tell you about what I have been doing in my spare time and introduce you to my uncle's and grandfather's plantation this year. About two months ago I was in the vega for the first time this year. The tobacco plantation was still small. Then I went back and they had already put up the cover crop.

In that vega they plant tapado tobacco, which is the one used for the wrapper of the tobacco. This is a very rigorous selection process that is carried out in the chosen one. But now it is time to tell you about what I have done to clear up a little.

Now we're talking! The first time I went this year my uncle and his workers were pulling the lower leaves off the plants. They had been attacked by the worm and that hollow leaf is no good for making the coating. Besides, according to my uncle, that first leaf, which is stuck to the ground, is not so good. What did they do next? They leave that leaf on the ground for several days until it dries. Then they water the furrow and the water current drags them to one of the headlands (the beginning of the furrows).

Once there they pick them up and take them out of the plantation. I asked my uncle a novice question: -Why not leave that leaf in the field? After all, does it decompose and is it compost or not? - His answer was: -Now, when the leaf is hooked, it remains under the soil, in the process of decomposition it releases toxins and that can harm the plant. - The truth is that one learns new things every day, I thought.

The next weekend I went back. They were "plugging palito". I thought that task was relatively easy, but nothing like that. What does it consist of? You take a hook or rake and pull the soil from the furrow towards the trunk of the plants. Easy task? By the time I had three furrows my shoulders were hurting. By the sixth furrow I had blisters between my index finger and thumb.

Those who were working there looked at me with mockery and asked me: "Professor, how are you getting along with the hook? Don't worry, when you get a callus there, no more blisters will appear - and they laughed. But I endured the day's work like a man.

I hadn't been back in almost a month and now, during the end of the year vacations, I wanted to spend some time there. What were they doing this time? They were shelling. In case you don't know what disbudding is, it consists of pulling out the new shoots that emerge between the already large leaves.

What is this done for? Partly so that the new shoots don't slow the plant down. This way, the nutrients consumed by each plant go to the big leaves, causing them to grow even more, I thought to myself - this task is not so complicated. My friend, it depends on the conditions in which it is done. As you can see, the plants have already reached the size of a man and in those days it was raining almost every day.

It was a fine drizzle. Around here we call it Chin Chin because it makes a noise like that when it falls against the zinc sheets of the roof of the tobacco curing houses. It was raining at night, but you can imagine that entering a dense plantation like this one, with wet plants and low temperatures is a bit annoying. When you've been in the furrow for an hour, the cold gets to your bones. However, this time I also resisted the test, supported by my grandfather. He still has a lot of energy.

Anyway, I went there moved by the nostalgia of my childhood memories. I also went there to escape from the fast-paced dynamics of city life and managed to relax. It is also true that a day's work in the tobacco plantation is devastating for those who have no training in that battle. That also helps to clear the mind. In reality, it leaves you no time or desire to think. When you finish, you just want a bed to sleep in.

The harvest is not over yet. In my grandfather's vega they have already started to pick the leaves and string them to cure them inside the tobacco house. They are a little ahead because they started the season early.

There are still farmers planting their posts now. This is another complicated task. Maybe another time I will tell you about it. Just a heads up that this work is a killer for the waistline. I thank you for the company this far. I hope you liked my story. I send you a friendly hug.

Text translated to English by DeepLTranslate. The photos were taken with my Xiaomi Redmi phone.