Harry,
Home production of an English "Balkan" style pipe tobacco is more challenging than it would at first seem.
A typical Balkan blend contains:
- flue-cured Virginia
- pressure-cured Perique
- fire-cured Latakia
- sun-cured Turkish
Some also include unflavored black Cavendish (steam-processed).
It's easy enough to grow a Virginia, Perique and a Turkish. The variety used to make Latakia is unclear (and I'd be suspicious of an Ebay vendor who has that answer), but probably most Turkish leaf that is heavily fire-cured (say, for about 3 months) with the correct wood will fit the bill.
But the various curing methods, each of which can be achieved by a home grower, are unique challenges requiring unique equipment. You will likely air-cure your first grow. Building a kiln to rapidly age the leaf is a helpful addition (and can allow you to produce leaf suitable for pipe as well as cigar). Search "Cozy can" for a thread on the crudest, most basic flue-curing chamber--made from a trash can. Also search "Black Cavendish" for that technique.
For fire-curing, the process is the same as smoking meats. I have fire-cured several varieties, including Samsun, Shirazi and Hickory Pryor. It's nice, but it isn't Latakia. In the short term, you'll have to buy Latakia (from, for example,
Cornell & Diehl) if you really want it. The same goes for Perique, unless you build a Perique press.
I have made some reasonably nice pipe blends with a combination of kilned air-cured Virginias, various Orientals, and fire-cured leaf, together with some acquired Perique. I also enjoy well-aged burley in a pipe. Pure black Cavendish is rather bland, but is useful in blending. My breakthrough came when I was able to flue-cure leaf. This gave me a true Bright Virginia taste. But it took several years to get around to trying to build a flue-cure chamber.
So long as you approach this as an adventure, and enjoy experimenting, I'm sure you'll find numerous pipe blends that you enjoy. You may also discover that you enjoy packing your pipe with pure leaf of a single variety at a time.
Bob
