Sumba Grow Log

[Tutu]

Hi All,

This thread is dedicated to my trip to Sumba from December 20[SUP]th[/SUP] until December 30[SUP]th[/SUP] in 2016. One of my best friends from high school came to Indonesia and we picked Sumba as the island we wanted to explore together. Sumba is remote, there is hardly any tourism, highly valued by anthropologists, and just an amazing place in general. Just as I had done on Timor-Leste I wanted to find tobacco in remote places. We rented a car and we travelled around the whole island in ten days, finding tobacco on several occasions. I will write a report about each occasion, starting with the first find, and ending with the last. Ultimately the idea of this thread is to grow these tobaccos found on Sumba. If anyone is interested to receive some seeds and to grow it themselves, they are welcome to join in on this thread.

First let me point out Sumba on a broader map. It shows most of South East Asia, where Indonesia is right in the centre. A red circle has been drawn around Sumba. You may also see Timor-Leste on this map. It is the East half of the Timor island, East of Sumba.




This second image is a simplified map of Sumba. The first yellow star indicates where this first story takes place. On the 20[SUP]th[/SUP] we landed in Tambolaka. We started driving the next day. Our journey first led South-West towards Kodi. We drove along the coast and reached Waikabubak at the end of the day. On the 22[SUP]nd[/SUP] we drove South from Waikabubak to find a nice waterfall and a couple of nice beaches on the South coast. This is where we eventually found the first tobacco on Sumba. It is in kabupaten Sumba Barat (West Sumba), in the kecamatan Wanokaka. The tobacco will be called after the kecamatan in which it is found. The sizes of kecamatans on Sumba are about the same as the sizes of provinces on Timor-Leste. Quite some interesting information about the district can be found on this website, called Wanukaka.




At the waterfall we met a guy called Yohanes who showed us around. He was smoking some tobacco, rolled up in corn-cob-skin. I asked him where he gets his tobacco and he told us he buys it from tobacco farmers in the village. Below is a picture of Yohanes’ smoke (1).




Going back to our car we met a guy who seemed to be a bit bored and wanted to follow us on his motorbike. I asked him if he knew any tobacco farmers in the area. He said he did and that we should follow him. After asking around a bit my fear that the tobacco season had been over was confirmed by many villagers. The dry season has finished and people have stopped planting tobacco. I asked our friend, Timotheus, if he could bring me to a farmer who grows tobacco during the dry season and who is selling his tobacco now. That wasn’t much of a problem. We followed him to a very small village with a few houses. All traditional houses in Sumba are wood-only. In the village was a little boy who said his father farmed tobacco but he was at the fields. I asked him if we could follow him to his father’s fields. He asked his mother and together we went to the field.

Entering the field we found the boy’s father. He was busy planting corn. Upon telling him that I was looking for tobacco plants he felt sorry to tell me that his crop had already been harvested. He showed the thrown away stems next to a small stream. Only a few small little plants remained in the field. I’ve got only a few pictures of the small plants that remained in the field.

Here are pictures of (2) us following the woman, our friend Timotheus and the little boy to the field. (3) A plowing machine, although usually buffaloes are used. (4) My friend Floris trying to reach the field which proved a difficult task for him on his flip-flops. (5) The field from a distance. (6) The farmer. (7) (8) Two small tobacco plants, to give you an idea of what they looked like.

 

[Tutu]

We went back to the village and the farmer came along. He explained how he would farm tobacco once a year, sun cure it, store it in boxes, and sell it to whomever past by and asked to buy the finished product. He was thus farming tobacco commercially, albeit on a very local basis. Timotheus, who had brought us there, told me that this particular farmer was well known to be one of the best tobacco farmer in the area.

I talked to the farmer about the way he cuts it, cures it, and stores it. Basically, he cuts it in the same way as is done in other parts of Indonesia and Malaysia, by rajangan. He rolls the leafs into a rope structure when they are still green, and they cut it whilst holding it through the hole of a wooden standard, which is in one of the pictures below. After that they lay it out in the open in the middle of their village. It sun cures, and then they store it in ticar boxes, also seen in the photos. When storing it they cover the tobacco with dried banana leafs. He keeps different primings in different boxes. He also keeps the flower/seed heads to use during his next season. He was very kind to give me all the buds you see in the picture. I also brought along some finished tobacco. In return we gave the farmer quite a bit of money and we gave a nangka fruit we had bought earlier that day to his fellow villagers.

In this series of photos you’ll see (1) the farmer with his boxes of tobacco. (2) A zoomed-in picture of a tobacco box. (3) a zoomed in picture of the seed-buds, which looked completely different to the other seed-buds we came across in other locations. It is now my profile picture on FTT, haha. (4) Myself discussing with the farmer the exact method of rajangan.










Next I asked the farmer how they usually smoke the tobacco. He told me they would usually roll it in the dried skin of a corncob. I have heard and seen this before but I had never really given it a good try. I asked if they could make that happen. A few guys from the village were very keen on showing us and smoking with us. To my surprise they made their smokes a little different as I had encountered before in other places in Indonesia, Malaysia, and it was also a bit different from Yohanes’ smoke at the waterfall. Whereas the other corn-smokes I have seen become thinner at the tip, this smoke was a straight stick, with a little knot tied in the middle to keep it together. Upon smoking one can pull the knot back as to not burn it through. I must say that it was a very potent smoke, high in nicotine.

Altogether this was a wonderful experience. We had a lot of fun, and I’m pretty sure the villagers did too. They were extremely friendly to show us around and talk to us. We all laughed and smiled. Afterwards we went with Timotheus to a beach and later to his mum’s house were we ate a pork dish and drank a few young coconuts.

Here are pictures of (5) the guy who made my smoke, with the guy on the left making the one for my friend afterwards. (6) An up close Sumbanese-RYO cigarette. Picture (7) and (8) has us both smoking our rolled up fatties. (9) You can see how the knot keeps it together but is loose enough to be pulled back towards the tip. This worked perfectly. (10) The last picture on which Floris sits amongst the villagers, all satisfied with a smoke.

 

[DistillingJim]

That soil looks very clayey, is the whole island like that?

 

[indianjoe]

Wonderful and interesting adventure, thanks for sharing.

 

[Leftynick]

Wait, i have heard Tambolaka before. Tambolaka pipe tobacco, where they roll a rope of ten foot long tobacco and age them for five years. It supposed to be very strong pipe tobacco.

 

[DistillingJim]

Wait, i have heard Tambolaka before. Tambolaka pipe tobacco, where they roll a rope of ten foot long tobacco and age them for five years. It supposed to be very strong pipe tobacco.

Yes, now you mention it, I think 4noggins was selling ropes of it for a while

 

[deluxestogie]

Wonderful tobacco travel log. It reminds me of the letters of the "Agricultural Explorers" of the US Department of Agriculture, during the 1920s and 1930s. You realize, I hope, that your are compiling excellent material for a book.

Curiously, when Europeans first encountered both corn and tobacco in the new world--the origin of both, the Maya were smoking tobacco that was wrapped in a string-tied corn husk.

Bob

 

[Tutu]

Thank you all for the kind words. Jim, yes, the soil is quite clay-like. Many farming soils in Indonesia are. On Sumba, there are quite a few differences from West to East, North to South, I must say. But as a whole, there are no volcanoes on the island. This probably gives it a slightly different soil composure than other Indonesian islands that do have volcanoes. But the Timor island for example also doesn't have volcanoes. Anyway, the West of the island is quite fertile and green, especially this time of year in the rain season. The East on the other hand is much more dry, rugged, rocky, without much vegetation. The interior is a mix, and you can find many hilly landscapes, with trees growing only at the foot of these hills where rivers flow, the hills themselves only covered by grass. There are some parts you could call a jungle, but only very little of the island. Flora and fauna differ quite dramatically from West to East as well. Many buffaloes in the West, many white cows in the East. A lot of wild horses everywhere. I could go on and on.

That is correct, 4noggins sells Tambolaka rope tobacco. Which is why I expected to find tobacco in Tambolaka. I didn't. Maybe I could have, if I had bothered to ask around a bit more. But to be honest, Tambolaka was a small place, and not a particularly nice one so we didn't stay around for long. They had a big market, many car/bike repair shops, and the farmers were all farming corn. Probably because tobacco season was over.

The Mayans smoking tobacco in corn husks is nice. Stringed, even better, because I had not seen that before prior to these people in Wanokaka. Hasse also asked me how they roll it. All I can say is that they use it in a very similar way as a paper, but they form the husk more as a tube. Most others whom I've seen smoking from corn husk make a cone structure. I'll add an image here of two spare corn-papers that the guy gave me to bring along. You can see how they're cut out. Maybe y'all can give it a try and smoke some in this manner. By the way, my guess is that Leftynick can tell you more about Malay smoking tobacco in corn husk.

I would fancy writing a book at some stage in my life but to be honest I'm not sure if it would be interesting enough to do it now. Second, I never considered writing something solely based on tobacco or tobacco exploring. I feel I know only very little about tobacco just now. Thanks for the compliment though, it does mean a great deal to me. I'll write about the other encounters with tobacco on Sumba soon, exclusively for FTT. They're not quite as interesting as this first find though.

 

[ArizonaDave]

Excellent documentation, and pictures! Makes me wish I was there!

 

[Charly]

Thank you Anton for sharing your wonderfull adventures with us.
It's great to meet people and share a moment with a smoke, I envy you !

 

[Tutu]

Umalulu

Part two of the Sumba accessions.

After collecting tobacco in Wanokaka, we intended to move on to explore more places on Sumba. However, on the way back from Wanokaka to Waikabubak we got a flat tire. We only found out the next morning. Fixing the tire took a while so we stayed in the area for another day, finding ourselves at the same beach in Wanokaka as the day before. The day after we moved on. We took the connecting road from Waikabubak towards Waingapu but got off to see pantai Terimbang first. Most parts of the road to the South coast are not bad, although some parts are not that great at all. On the same way we made the journey back to the connecting road and drove all the way to Waingapu. I stopped to talk to farmers in the Terimbang area but was unable to find somebody who grew tobacco. We slept in Waingapu.




The next day we were set to explore the East coast of Sumba and drive all the way to Kalala. In the end we never reached Kalala itself because we often found ourselves side-tracked on small roads leading to little villages and to beaches. The story leading up to the second tobacco find is maybe more interesting than the find itself. Judge for yourselves.

We were driving on the main road, cruising at a nice speed, when all of a sudden a goat, perhaps tired of life itself, decided it had to cross the road right in front of us. I’ve been in other parts of the world were goats were the only animals ever to watch out carefully when crossing the road (Namibia, Angola), but in Sumba that is not the case. On Sumba they seem to be the dumbest ones around. Floris shouted out, but I was unable to avoid hitting the animal. Slowing down was not an option, I would still have hit the animal, and an abrupt change of course would have put ourselves in danger. So I hit it. Pretty hard. We ran it over with the middle of the car and looking in the rear mirror I saw that the animal was trying to get up, but couldn’t. In the end, I’m pretty sure that the people who lived near the place would eat the animal later that evening.

Right after hitting it I mulled what to do. I was considering to stop and check the front of the car. While I was thinking we drove an additional 400 meters. While thinking I looked out of my right side window. All of a sudden I saw tobacco! It took me 100 meters more to decide to stop, check the car, and drive back to the tobacco. So we did. The car was not damaged very bad so I turned around and drove to find if there was indeed tobacco. I had only seen it in a flash and I wasn’t sure. I was right though, there was tobacco. Quite neatly lined up. These plants were very short. I can’t tell if the plants were there for personal use or if the owner sold it to others living in the area, because nobody was home except for a loud barking dog. I am very sure that this tobacco was put in place on purpose, thus transplanted. Also, the plants have clearly been harvested. I took that as a positive sign. I shot some photos, took some very dry seed pods and left a few to remain for the owner’s personal use. Some stems were already slightly broken at the top and the seed was falling out. I’m pretty confident that the owner had already collected what he needed himself.

Later that day won the way back to Waingapu I stopped at a neighbour of the tobacco house, since those people were still not at home. I asked them what the name of the kecamatan was. Apparently, it is Umalulu. I checked, and that is indeed the case. That means we now have Wanokaka and Umalulu. Great tobacco names if you ask me!

Below are most of the photos I took at the house as well as a photo I shot of the seed buds later that day when we were back in the Hotel in Waingapu. They were the most difficult seed buds I have yet opened. Very small, very crumbly, difficult to get the seeds out, and difficult to handle in general. Completely different from the Wanokaka seeds.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

So this curing method, are you saying they make a rope with green tobacco, then immediately slice it, and sun cure the tobacco already shredded? How wide are the shreds approximately? Or are you saying they sun cure the rope, then slice it?

 

[Tutu]

Yes that is correct. Slice it when it is green, quite thin, just like normal cutrag for roll your own. Then sun cure it sliced. Rajangan is what it's called. It's quit common throughout Indonesia.

 

[Tutu]

Rindi

Part three of the Sumba accessions.

This variety was collected on the same day as finding the Umalulu. After assassinating the goat and having obtained the Umalulu we continued to drive towards the south-east of the island. We took several small roads, ending up near all sorts of traditional villages. Many of them are located near the sea, and people live of drying sea-weed. Some pictures of it at the end of this post. Lots of interesting encounters with people, some nice swimming in the sea, and beautiful nature to go with it. We didn't make it to Kalala itself, but came pretty close. The villages were more interesting than the resort at Kalala anyway, we believed. Late in the afternoon we started our journey back to Waingapu.



Suddenly we drove past a house where I saw large tobacco plants reaching the high sky. It was already close to dusk so I was happy to still spot it. I walked up to the house and at first the people were reluctant to talk to me. After explaining my intentions these people opened up a bit. There were two women and a boy, although only two of them are on the pictures. Anyway, I got a plastic bag out of our car to start collecting some seeds. I was able to get a good number of seedpods. Not all of them had dried out yet so I needed to work them in the next couple of days. I was able to take home quite a nice bag. We talked with the people for a bit, both about tobacco and other things. The women told me that they do now and then grow tobacco in a field, presumably their husbands do. The tobacco growing besides their house had not been harvested and they said they had no intention to do so. They told me I could also prime some leafs and take them with me but I said that the seedpods alone were fine. While we were talking, a big swarm of locust came flying by and the women told me that they were quite an issue around there. Many a harvest had been eaten. Here are some of the pictures that were shot.
















Also I wanted to include two pictures of the drying of sea-weed because I thought that it relates to what we do, only slightly. They catch the stuff with nets. Then they dry it in full sun.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

Re: Rindi

That plant on the right is pretty big, especially considering they haven't topped it or picked the suckers. I can't wait to see how that one turns out.

 

[BigBonner]

Are the plants two different varieties ?
The top picture leaves look different than the one farthest to the right .

Do the have aphid or worm problems ?

 

[Tutu]

The spacing of the leafs does look slightly different. These plants might not be a stable variety. That might also account for one plant being extremely tall and the other not. I did not source any seeds from the plant that you see on the first two photos closest to the camera. It didn't have any seed yet. All seeds come from the two plants on the far right. Growing the seeds will give us a better idea on how stable the variety really is. All we talked about in terms of problems were the locust, that eat mostly the paddy and corn harvest. No idea about aphids or worms. Although aphids are not usually a large problem here in Indonesia. I suppose they like a climate slightly cooler. The East side of Sumba is extremely dry.

 

[Tutu]

Loli

The last Sumba accession. The fourth and final part. After this, growing them has to be the focus.




After having spent a few days in the North East of Sumba we decided to carry on and follow the road along the North coast. We started in Waingapu and the idea was to end up in Waikabubak, once more. It was an amazing trip with beautiful sights. I was scouting for tobacco along the whole trip but didn't see any. There were not too many villages to begin with. When we turned South ward the terrain became more jungle like, more humid, and much more green. Not far before we would finally reach Waikabubak I spotted another tobacco plant. With hindsight I still find it difficult to understand how I spotted it. It was really only a small plant and it was somewhat far away. The name of this kecamatan was Loli​. Yes, I double checked.

We walked up to the house and found that the family seemed quite poor, whereas the rest of the village didn't seem to be that bad off. Floris had been carrying a sweater for the whole trip, trying to find someone in need to give it too. We talked to the people first, and I explained how I would be interested to take some of the seeds. They agreed, and we went back to the car to get a plastic bag, a sweater and some money. The people, a couple and their son, were delighted. They had difficulty understanding that I didn't need any of the leaf. Also, there was a little plant growing that you can see on the third picture. They insisted I would take the "anak tembakau", but I refused. For me it was only about obtaining some seeds. I think we left them happy people. When we were leaving they were already shouting to neighbours how kind a people they had met.

Although it was only a single plant, I think they were actually harvesting it. It was small in size, but it was also growing in the shade. You can see it on the pictures. I'm quite curious how it would turn out if you'd grow this stuff.

 

[Charly]

That's a wonderfull trip !
That's really kind to give people something for the seeds, so that everyone is happy !

Now you'll have a lot of work to do to grow all those different seeds from different locations, and try to identify and classify it !

I'll wait with pleasure until your next posts

 

[deluxestogie]

As always, I love the travel log.

Bob