Besuki

[Copenhagen Forever]

For the follow-up I want to treat you to some more Besuki photo's I took early in the morning in one of the Northern Jember areas. Earlier pictures I posted are of South Jember.

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I was talking to a Bayesian guy at a west indies carnaval who lived in Mattapan Ma. (near Boston) He was uprooted as a boy when his parents moved to USA. We were talking about Barbatos and with a heartfelt feeling, in his thickest accent he said something like "Me one fe go down day, mon."
With Heartfelt feeling I tell you Tutu, I always wanted to go there, man. I'll probably never make it in my life. You are living my dream. Glad that you posted these pictures and I'm glad to make your acquaintance.
Joe

 

[Charly]

I was talking to a Bayesian guy at a west indies carnaval who lived in Mattapan Ma. (near Boston) He was uprooted as a boy when his parents moved to USA. We were talking about Barbatos and with a heartfelt feeling, in his thickest accent he said something like "Me one fe go down day, mon."
With Heartfelt feeling I tell you Tutu, I always wanted to go there, man. I'll probably never make it in my life. You are living my dream. Glad that you posted these pictures and I'm glad to make your acquaintance.
Joe

Well, if we grow "true java" Besuki ourself, it might bring a little bit of Indonesia right at home
Thank you Anton for the seeds, I hope they will be fine here in France

 

[Tutu]

I was talking to a Bayesian guy at a west indies carnaval who lived in Mattapan Ma. (near Boston) He was uprooted as a boy when his parents moved to USA. We were talking about Barbatos and with a heartfelt feeling, in his thickest accent he said something like "Me one fe go down day, mon."
With Heartfelt feeling I tell you Tutu, I always wanted to go there, man. I'll probably never make it in my life. You are living my dream. Glad that you posted these pictures and I'm glad to make your acquaintance.
Joe

As Charly said, growing the stuff does give you something of the place, doesn't it. But I'm not sure you're growing tobacco or just buying it to make the dip. It'd be easy to send you a few Besuki leafs by mail. Not sure if it'll get stopped entering the country. Anyway, I will post a few more pictures of Besuki fields during the next growing season. It'll be a while though. Glad to hear you liked the pictures!

 

[Copenhagen Forever]

Ya Tutu, I'm just toying with the cigar thing. I love my dip. Buying tobacco simplifies things a lot. At the end of this month, we'll be closing on a piece of property right here on the island. From that point on, I'll be straight out till next year. Thanks for the offer.

I watched a documentary called "Fire and Ice" The Blaine brothers, many years ago and I've been enthralled with that whole area ever since. I also saw Jacques Cousteau dive Krakatau Atol before it re-erupter and formed Anak Krakatau.
I'll be watching for your pictures. Smoke one for me.
Joe

 

[Tutu]

Driving around, I found a beautiful shot. Captured it, and sharing it with you guys.
Talking about traditional barns...

 

[greenmonster714]

Very nice. That reminds me of the three years I spent down in Central America.

 

[Tutu]

A few new shots from the new season because I know you guys will like it.

 

[Gavroche]

Nice Tutu... Thank you !

 

[deluxestogie]

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Are you sure that's not a photo of my Besuki from this year? It looks familiar. (Definitely not the chlorophyll-deficient "Java Besuki" from tabakanbau.)

Bob

 

[Tutu]

It's still lighter than the Kasturi field you see in the background of that picture. Besides that, this picture was taken in one of the Northern areas of our regency. The Besuki seed over there is actually supposed to be slightly different from those I have been distributing to you and others. It yields less, the shape of the leaf is more round, shorter, but woosh it is much more tasty. At least when you get it in bulk volumes. Would actually have been more interesting to grow this alongside the other seed I send you rather than two types from seeds that came from areas that closely resemble each other. As for the stuff from Tabakanbau, no clue where they got their seed from. Doesn't seem very close to the stuff grown over here. And after all, this area is where Besoeki got its name from

 

[Tutu]

I came up with the idea of having farmers sun-cure their Besuki bottom leafs that they usually throw away.
Results are coming in now and it's looking quite nice.
Some examples:

 

[deluxestogie]

It's beautiful. I hadn't thought of sun-curing my Besuki.

Bob

 

[Ben Brand]

I love Bezuki wrapper. Contemplating on only planting Bezuki as a wrapper next season!!!

 

[Tutu]

Ben, one of the two letters I sent you about a year ago turned up back at my place, written on it that it was never picked up from the post office in SA...

 

[Ben Brand]

Yes the post office notified me that they`ve send it back. Never notified me that the letter was here for collection. That`s living in Africa. Thanks anyway for your trouble.

 

[Tutu]

That's a shame indeed. Things aren't much different around here in Indonesia. Am going to make another attempt at sending it though

 

[Leftynick]

I came up with the idea of having farmers sun-cure their Besuki bottom leafs that they usually throw away.
Results are coming in now and it's looking quite nice.
Some examples:

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So they are selling this experimental leaves or they use it for themselves? If I am the farmer, I would never throw away these leaves. If no one buy them, I just smoke them for myself. Or shred them and sell them at locally at lower price. At least I gain some than none. Looking at those, it can easily be my few years of supply.

 

[deluxestogie]

Tutu,
I'm curious from looking at the photo of sun-curing Besuki. When it rains, do they just leave it there, or do they take it indoors, then replace it all?

Bob

 

[Tutu]

So they are selling this experimental leaves or they use it for themselves? If I am the farmer, I would never throw away these leaves. If no one buy them, I just smoke them for myself. Or shred them and sell them at locally at lower price. At least I gain some than none. Looking at those, it can easily be my few years of supply.

I'm buying those leafs. Farmers usually do plant a few Kasturi plants for their own personal use. The reason why they usually throw away the leafs is the following. They set the price they can potentially earn with those leafs against a computation of their average leaf cost. These costs are usually the costs of stringing tobacco, hanging it in a barn, getting it down and making hands. With large volumes they need workers and they need to pay their workers. They generally know how much it costs them per kg of tobacco. When they hear the price they get paid for sun curing the bottom leafs, they'll think it's not worth it. I'm telling them to look at it in another way. There's hardly any additional costs when you harvest these sun-cure leafs at the same time when you're taking your first dark-air-cured priming from the field. Don't string them, sun-cure them, don't bundle them, and we will pick them up. Prices of sun-cured are (relatively) skyrocketing at the moment in East Java so there's a margin to be made for them. Some of them are finding out right now. I've also had one farmer who is harvesting his cipril for sun-cured (the very top leafs). They sun-cure much darker, but because they weigh more than bottom leafs, I think there's still a margin in it for them.

Tutu,
I'm curious from looking at the photo of sun-curing Besuki. When it rains, do they just leave it there, or do they take it indoors, then replace it all?

Bob

I've not seen any rain for the past two months so at the moment there's no need to adjust to it. But when there is, they take it inside their house or curing barn. Some of them string the sun-curing leafs on little bamboo sticks (the Kasturi way of sun-curing) so it's easier to handle more leafs at the same time. If they do bring it inside, they'll put them back out the next morning when the sun is out.

 

[Ben Brand]

Thanks for trying again. Much appreciated.