Here's my thinking on this matter. If folks 150 years ago could successfully produce bright tobacco in a log barn heated by flues from log fires, then hit or miss will generally get the job done. On the other hand, the larger the load of leaf, the greater the risk (financial or personal) if the batch doesn't come out bright cured.
If you recall, my first flue-cure attempt "failed," but did produce a whole string of Big Gem green leaves. I brought one into case, stemmed it, and used it as a candela (green) cigar wrapper--which is just what I had accidentally created. From the late 1940s through the early 1970s, most of the cigars sold in the US were candela wrapped. They were tagged "AMS," for American Market Selection. Today they are often called "double claro."
I expected the green leaf to have a bitter taste on the tongue. Instead, the tough, stretchable candela wrapper rolled nicely, burned well, and contributed practically no taste at all--unlike air-cured leaf that dries green. It's like smoking a cigar in a cigar holder that's chewy. Although candela cigars are not my preference, this one surprised me with a pleasant smoke. The filler was aged, air-cured Maryland. I would guess that if you rolled cigarette shred in a candela wrapper, it would smoke pretty much like a jumbo cigarette that you can clench in your teeth.
Anyone with a kiln can make candela leaf in 3 or 4 days. Green leaf is held at about 115-120ºF for two or three days, until it begins to dry. Then the temp is taken up to about 135ºF for a day to completely dry the lamina and veins (though the stem will not be fully dried at this temp).
Bob
Edit: And how does the thermostat actually raise the temperature of the crock pot - solely by turning it on and off less frequently? Excuse my 'dumb' questions - although it's not an excuse - I've got no technical background.....
Bex, my non-technical build of a kiln/curing chamber:Thanks very much for your response! Being in the UK, air curing is pretty much out of the question, and while the toweling method worked well enough to yellow small amounts of tobacco, your flue curing method seems spot on to me, not tremendously technical (so that I can understand it), and convenient enough for me to do. Thanks for answering about the thermostat - dopey me. One other question, if you don't mind....for the yellowing process, is the crock put running with no liquid in it?? And then added when the wilting process begins? If I can get this down properly, and actually am able to make my 100 or so plants into some kind of smokable product, I will be forever greatful to you. My head is spinning from all the info (technical and mumbo jumbo) on the internet. I've been scouring this forum for the better part of 5 hours now - my next 'project' is learning whether or not I can actually drill through the wall of my freezer in order to make the electrical connection for the crock pot (and/or seed mats). Another learning process begins - some sites say ok, others say...NO. Eck. Will check on the link that you posted as well....
Thanks, Dgbama - yup, this was one of the threads that I was studying during my entire evening used reading this forum. Differet important bits of info from many threads here - from you, I got the great idea of using the pins in my soon-to-be flue chamber. A great idea, as the thought of stringing up all these leaves was pretty suffocating and tedious for me. And yes, I will put my info in the 'introduce yourself' part of the forum....And hopefully start a thread at some point with my 'build', flue curing and the problems that I run into. For the moment, the extent of my technical input will be something akin to the Cozy Can. I will have to fire up my old crockpot (given to me as a gift 35 years ago, and never used, but lugged around with me for a lifetime, apparently just for this very moment. I will have to fire it up, just to make sure that it actually works. For the moment, just to clarify, my 'notes' show the following steps: 1. yellowing - 2/3 days. Crockpot filled (I don't have seeding mats) and temp 93F (or 95-105F). Lid ajar (clothespin) and peeking every 12 hours. 2. Leaf wilting stage: Yellowing complete, crockpot still at lowest setting, lid ajar, temp 120F. No peeking 3. Leaf drying stage: After 12 hours, temp raised to 125F; 12 more hours, temp raised to 135F for 12 more hours 4. Stem drying stage: Temp raised to 145F; 12 more hours temp raised to 155F. Final phase after 12 more hours - 165F for 12 hours with lid closed. 5. Leaves brought back to case so they can be handled. My current project will be drilling a hole through the freezer (read another thread here where the coils were hit doing this....but no worry - the freezer will never be used as a freezer again), setting up the crock pot with my transformer (crockpot is originally from USA, as am I, so transformer needed for electricity), getting a 'water heater' or 'grill' thermometer (will have to search for specifics on this one), and experimenting with the temperature. I have a clothespin..... Anyway, thanks to you experts who have read and responded to my post - I know that 'newbies' can be a bit, well, frustrating. While I currently buy my leaf off of the internet at a good price, it would be excellent to be able to actually produce my own, usable product. And it would also be good to know how to 'format' my responses, so that the numbered list I wrote above looks like a list instead of everything all bunched up together....
