Paper leaves of tobacco leaves: Tobacco Sheds, Vanishing Treasures of the Connecticut River Valley

I love books.

Hell, I love them so much, I write books.*

When I moved into Valentino's swanky bachelor pad**, lo those many years ago, I brought with me no less than one zillion books. Then I bought many many bookshelves to hold aforementioned books, thinking I'd have plenty of room.  I filled them.

He asked at one point, "What do you need all those books for?"***

"They're my friends," I said, without thinking about the thousand and thousands of paper leaves filling the books.

Speaking of leaves, (this is all going to come together in a second, so stay with us) this fall, we had a chance to tour a tobacco shed and hear about the drying and aging process.

The tour was part of an event put on by Connecticut Valley Tobacco Museum in conjunction with the lovely Karin Mills Tranghese and Cigar Room II in Agawam, MA.

Tino and tobacco

(Here's the connection we promised!) The other day we received this friend, Tobacco Sheds, Vanishing Treasures of the Connecticut River Valley, in the mail:

Paper leaves of tobacco leaves!
Hey book, could you be any more gorgeous?

This is the book's description (Thanks, amazon.com!):

"In recent years, over one thousand tobacco sheds have disappeared from the Tobacco Valley. This important book systematically catalogues tobacco sheds from Putney, Vermont, to Portland, Connecticut, a span of just over one hundred miles. The photographs capture the beauty of these unique farm buildings and serve as a valuable record for these endangered barns. The text offers the agricultural history of each town, helping to connect sheds to their own unique region of New England. In addition, the book reinforces the need for preserving one of New England s most unusual farm structures.

"Many sheds in the Connecticut River Valley are still used to dry tobacco leaves that will wrap some of the world's most expensive cigars, but, sadly, some are being left to slowly deteriorate over time or are being torn down to make way for development. This book will be treasured by cigar smokers and architectural historians and preservationists alike."

I totally treasure this book. It's filled with gorgeous photographs and well-written text that tells the story behind these tobacco titans scattered across the Connecticut River Valley, both of which are gorgeous in their own right.

In case you're not sure where we're talking about. [source]

One of the book's pages!
And one of the region's tobacco sheds. Gorgeous, no?

 

Can I be honest here? Since we're BFFs and all? I've seen these buildings my whole life as my family road-tripped around New England. "Pretty," I'd think and then my thoughts would move along with the car.**** I honestly had no idea tobacco was not only a New England industry but a necessary and successful one.  In fact, the shed we toured produced the wrapper for a little cigar called Liga Privada, according to owner Steve Jarmoc; ever heard of it? (Hahaha!)

 

Ceiling of tobacco leaves during our tour.

The authors of Tobacco Sheds, Vanishing Treasures of the Connecticut River Valley, an eclectic husband and wife team, have created a visual masterpiece as gorgeous as the sheds themselves.

The Cahills! [source]

 

"Dale Cahill has been a sailor, farmhand, electronic technician, equipment maintenance technician, a life guard, has run an aquatics facility, and is both a father and a grandfather. He has worked at resorts and in factories, favors the outdoors and he loves skiing, mountain biking and photographing beautiful things. He plays mandolin and guitar and owns a ski bar in Vermont.

 

"Darcy Cahill has been a teacher, school counselor, reporter, and sheep dog breeder. She is a mother and grandmother. She plays fiddle and owns a ski bar with her husband. She also spends time writing, gardening, mountain biking, and skiing." [source]            

 

 

 

According to an article in Cigar Aficionado, "The new book Tobacco Sheds, Vanishing Treasures of the Connecticut River Valley, takes the reader on a journey through the Connecticut River Valley and goes behind-the-scenes to show what these majestic barns really are. Authors Dale and Darcy Cahill, who have made these barns their passion for many years now, traveled the length of the 400-mile valley, which touches four U.S. states. More than 1,000 have been lost to time, disrepair and changing fortunes over recent years, but they found sheds remaining in Vermont, Massachusetts and (of course) Connecticut. None remain, they said, in New Hampshire."

Keep an eye out next time you're driving around the Connecticut Valley. They aren't just cool barns off in the distance, as I'd imagined. Well, they kind of are, but they're way more than that. They're SUPER cool barns! And you might even be smoking that shed's wares.

By the way, if you do get a chance to visit a tobacco shed this coming season (and you totally should!), be sure to pick up a nice hat for yourself.

Cabellero #2 and his fab chapeau.

In the meantime, get Tobacco Sheds, Vanishing Treasures of the Connecticut River Valley and enjoy the world around you--or the world your cigar may have come from--while in your cozy, warm house.


*You should buy them all here.

**Read: Beautifully-decorated, huge house

***Obviously, he's not a book person.

****Back in the day when kids' minds wandered during road trips, as opposed to now when they don't even look out the windows because they're watching a video. These kids probably don't even know the joy of fighting with a sibling, unhindered by a seat-belt, during a road trip--or getting a weak slap from a parent on whatever part of your body they can reach as they're driving--or calling "Way back!" so you could sit in the back of the station wagon staring at the drivers behind you and annoying the crap out of said drivers. Annoying two cars of people was a special bonus. Poor kids these days, watching TV during the ride.

Glen Case and Kristoff get all the sparkles!

The other day, when a certain someone* should have been home grading papers, she wasn't because she'd been whisked off** to a new place.***

Another new favorite place!
Hanging out in all these awesome places doesn't leave any time for work! 
Hold on while I go play the lottery!! We have lots more places to visit!

Our friend Brenda, who started working at Havana Cigar Club in West Warwick, RI not too long ago, had been enticing us with promises of a place filled with unicorns and rainbows.**** Yeah, yeah, yeah we said, since the lounge is maybe 30-40 minutes away from Casa Awesome.

But her wily ways took a stronghold the other day when she announced a Kristoff event at the lounge. We'd heard nothing but amazing things about his eminency***** Glen Case and we needed to bow to him, shake his hand, and offer to wash his car. At least that was my intention. Valentino said we could just make him laugh and smoke his cigars. Whatevs, dude.

Turns out his plan really was the best one, although I'll never admit that publicly.****** (It was really cold that night so washing the car was out of the question anyway.) And we certainly made him laugh. In fact, he and Valentino may share a funny gene.*******  OMG! It was like they were separated at birth! For realz!

And while all the jocularity occurred, he showed us his wares (heh heh), asking what Valentino likes to smoke and then made recommendations from favorites. That makes me happy, when a cigar rep or
owner or shopkeeper wants to match you with the perfect cigar for you, rather than pointing you in the popular direction.

These are just two of our purchases. The others disappeared magically somehow, swallowed up by the Humidor Monster perhaps?

We know what happened to this one though:

Up in flames, baby! Up! In! Flames!
And it made me have the glad, because man, oh man, was that fabuloso!!

The Kristoff GC Signature Series hit the flame first and released "rich notes of espresso, dried apricot, chocolate and a sweet-spicy finish." [source]  The delicious Brazilian Maduro wrapper reminded us a teeny bit of our old friend, the CAO Amazon Basin. The binder is Cuban Seed Honduran and the filler, the filler is all the delicious things! Cuban Seed Dominican! Cuban Seed Honduran! AND Cuban Seed Nicaraguan!

Our friend Brenda, she who enticed us there in the first place, had this and raaaaaved about it. I can't possibly share a second-hand smoke story with you because she's a fast little devil, moving a zillion miles an hour:

"The maduro ligero washes your palate with notes of espresso bean,
dark chocolate, a hint of mix berry and a sweet cocoa finish."
(I'd tell you the source, but I closed the dang window and moved on with my day and then...d'oh!)

The Kristoff website says, "The Kristoff Ligero has twice the amount of Ligero leaf in the filler than the original Kristoff. It embodies incredible notes of toasted nut, caramel, undertones of cedar, spice and a sweet finish. Made with 100% Cuban Seed tobacco, this cigar leaves a clean, fresh finish on your palate."

Anyway, Glen? Glen is awesomely awesome and he would never lead you astray--unless you asked him to, but that's something else again. Want to know why he's in the cigar business? "It was one of those mid-life crisis’.  I’ve always enjoyed a good cigar and decided to pursue, what was an interest at the time; but it quickly turned into a passion."  Yeah, that happens to a lot of us. Oh, wait. Midlife crisis? Nope. Don't know anything about that!

"I spent nineteen years in the corporate world; all in the financial services industry.  The last nine years of my career, I spent as an executive at one of the top five banks in the country. I actually started in this industry as an independent sales rep.  However, it was only about six months later that I decided I wanted to come out with my own cigar line.  That was over 8 years ago." [source]

Havana Cigar Club Owner Todd LaScola, our hero Valentino, and Glen Case!

So! Now we 1. Have a couple of new friends; 2. Found another cool place to hang out; 3. Have another new favorite cigar. Not a bad evening of fun, although when we finally returned home, the elves hadn't even started grading papers. It's so hard to get good help these days.  Sheesh.


*Me, in case you haven't caught on to our patterns of mystery here.

**Actual conversation went something like this... Him: Ready to go? Me: Yep.

***New to me; Valentino had cased the joint previously.

****Metaphorical, I was sad to find out.

*****Not Eminem, you jokers. The head honcho.

******Oh.

*******Not this funny Gene:
 

As we say here in Massachusetts: Winnah! or: This post brought to you by Benadryl

I have been very itchy lately, as I am allergic to...something. Could it be work? Ummm...maybe? Anyway, I get through the day thanks to Benadryl. You need to know all that in order for the rest of this silliness to make sense.

Hello, friend

I printed out all the names of folks who entered the October cigar giveaway and was going over to the drawer to get the scissors* to make little strips and put them in a vessel of some sort and get Valentino to pick one. I put the paper down in order to freshen up the Benadryl level in my system. While attempting to pop that little pink bitch out of the hermetically-sealed packaging, it fell out and bounced a few times on the paper, ultimately landing smack dab on one person's name.

Look, I know a sign when I see one. And this was a sign, the little bouncing neon pink pill.

And so, by the Order of Benadryl, the winner of the J Grotto Anniversary cigars is...

Nina Mako!!

Usually, the winners receive cigars stolen directly from the 2,000-count humidor here at Casa Awesome.** BUT! The super kind folks at Mr. J's Havana Shop gave us the cigars to give our winner! Thank you thank you thank you!! So Nina will receive two of these, although I can't remember which two... It'll be a surprise!! For both of us!!

Huzzah! Yay! Wahoo!!!!

What's the Cigar of the Month for November?  Howzabout a couple of these?

Yeah, baby!

*We are very organized here at Casa Awesome and the scissors are always ALWAYS in exactly the same place.

**You might be thinking, Well Valentino would never even know they're missing if you have that many!  You'd be very wrong. He knows what's in there and, if you must know, each cigar is lovingly placed "just so"... so he'd know.