Just thought I would introduce myself, my name is Jeremy and I live in the heartland of farm country in Michigan, USA. I’ve been growing my own tobacco for 5 years now, own a whole leaf tobacco business and continue to enjoy tobacco, especially the stuff I’ve grown naturally! I discovered snuff many moons ago and got hooked instantly, I prefer my homemade snuff coarse and slightly moist but enjoy a good dry american snuff once in awhile Cheers

@Michibacy‌ Welcome aboard !

That’s really cool! I would like some whole leaf tobacco to experiment with. How do I arrange a purchase? Do you sell the tobacco natural, or is it available as already fermented and whatnot? I do not have the facilities to treat it myself, but would like to make my own chew and snuff.

Welcome Michibacy. I hope you’ll tell us more about your homemade snuff, how you grind it, use stems?, what type of leaf you prefer, etc.

Welcome Michibacy. I am on the other side of Detroit from you in the heartland of farm country in southwestern Ontario. I’m also very interested in the entire process involved with growing your own to finishing with snuff!

If anyone is interested in purchasing or more in depth information feel free to PM me, but my website is www.davinciplantservices.com. if it’s sold on the online store it’s grown here in Michigan, completely natural. By law I can say it’s grown organic (as I sell under $5000 a year) but I prefer to say “grown using organic principles”. I make my own fertilizer out of organically grown crops, only use certified organic pesticides if necessary. We don’t have a huge variety as we’ve sold out on a lot, but what we do have, we have a decent stock) Right now tobacco laws are changing, and I regret to say I only can take on US sales unless you folks want to do the exports paper work. The stuff I have is aged, and “air cured” with outside heat, no wood fires, no propane etc. It isn’t fermented in a kiln or the like. It is actually quite easy to process tobacco, I grow it just like you would tomatos and harvest it, let it air cure till brown/yellow and then let it age in big bunches. For making it into snuff, I remove the center stem (I’m also building a tool for sale that will quickly remove the center stem) from each leaf, and tear the leaf into pieces about the size of a credit card. If they aren’t in low “case” I let them dry. (case is what the humidity of tobacco leaf is, high case is quite pliable, not dripping with moisture but feels like thin leather. Low case is almost completely dry, like leaves in autumn) I then shred them in a coffee grinder until quite fine (I do this outside, it makes a lot of dust!) I then add different scents to it if desired, food grade flavors or essential oils work the best, with a very tiny bit of vegetable glycerine (watered down) to keep humidity if desired. if it isn’t as fine as I like, I filter it though a 80 or 100 mesh screen to remove large chunks. Some folks use the center stem but I find it to be inferior. When I make a tobacco product (which I don’t and can’t legally sell) I like it to be top shelf. It has taken experimenting and even failure but I have a product that has left some tobacco fanatics sitting in awe and wanting more. Making chew/dip can be quite difficult because most modern chew is chemically treated to whits ends and then flavored. Cigarette/cigar tobacco is pretty easy to make, cigars (you need the right tobacco and climate) are decently easy to roll with practice, cigarettes can be either blended straight (such as American Spirit, but better with my tobacco!) or you can make a “casing” which is a top flavoring that slightly alters the tobacco chemically to be more appeasing. (often made with sugars or juices). Leaf type for snuff is actually dependent on what you like. I like a strong smell, and a strong hit, my Yellow Twist Bud hits that on the nose. The Virginia Bright Leaf tends to be sweeter and takes on your scent more readily. Thanks for the warm welcome folks!

@Michibacy Thanks for the great explanation! It answered a lot of questions I had. I’m going to buy some of each leaf type. Do you by chance know of any way to prepare tobacco to be made into chew absent heavy chemical treating? I imagine there should be, as chew was made before modern production techniques would have been available. Again, thanks for the great tips and info!

@Michibacy Welcome!!!

I didn’t mean this to be a tutorial or a sales thread but I’ll take anything I can get As for processing into chew it depends what you like. I know of a few recipes that can make a red-man like chew, and I know a more indepth recipe for something like Ettan Snus or Copehagen original if you’re interested. The main “issue” with using whole leaf and making chew is the flavors you get from the tobacco that you don’t expect. Most tobaccos without a few years aging or kilning/curing with smoke have a earthy flavor, not bad, just different. When making a chewing tobacco I suggest the Virginia Bright Leaf, not a lot of “earthy” flavor, and absorbs taste well. When making dip, producers add salt or sodium bicarbonate to raise PH will aid in Nicotine absorption and also freebases the nicotine. Essentially, your strong chews aren’t necessarily made with “the strongest tobacco” they are just chemically modified to make you get the most nicotine out of your leaf. (not saying some companies don’t use very strong tobacco) I’m thinking of assembling “DIY kits” for snuff, say a half pound of tobacco with scents in an included vial. You would have to destem the tobacco and blitz it in the grinder (legally speaking). Anyone be interested?

Apparently my webshosting is having A LOT of issues lately, I apologize for this. Below are prices: Yellow Twist Bud $15 per whole pound Virginia Bright Leaf $25 per whole pound $13 per half pound $8 shipping/handling flat rate. If interested email me at dvplantservices@gmail.com, I can accept paypal, check, credit card. Sorry again folks. (I’m shopping for a new hosting service)