On Friday I went to divvy up some of my first batch of Zawacki Tobacki and was met with quite a surprise. The whole bag was full of mold. That’s my life, isn’t it?

I’m not entirely sure what caused the mold to grow. I mean, I know it has to do with mositure and warmth, but the preparation process I went through should have taken care of that. Part of the process is baking the tobacco for 12 hours at 175°. To me, that should be enough time at a high enough heat to kill of mold. Maybe it came after that when I cut and bagged it. Maybe I left it in the foil wrapper used for baking too long and the mold that permeates the air in our apartment just latched onto the mold.

So the sad news is that I won’t have a whopping 2.8 ounces of homegrown tobacco to smoke, but that’s not going to discourage me from trying again. I currently have a couple very healthy plants growing in the greenhouse (though the greenhouse seems to be the most likely suspect for growing mold in the apartment). I’ll probably start a few more this spring so my yeild will be higher. I’m going to try a few things new this year which will also hopefully increase the likelihood of being able to smoke some tobacco.