CLERMONT, Fla. — A cigar tobacco grower in Lake County is concerned about Tuesday night’s frost, saying it could wipe out his crop.
Jeff Borysiewicz is worried Mother Nature will destroy his entire cigar tobacco crop. “If we get a frost tonight, we will lose all our tobacco.”
To make matters worse, he says crows killed most of his crop last spring, so they just replanted half of the plants.
“We had thousands and thousands of crows that literally pulled the seedling out of the ground.”
Jeff created the farm to help boost the cigar industry locally and create jobs. “It’s kind of like a micro distillery, but a micro cigar tobacco farm just to keep it going for the tradition.”
The leaves grown here are rolled into cigars and later sold at local stores owned by Corona Cigar Company.
But now there may not be any local cigars to sell, because there’s no way to protect these leaves. Jeff says insurance coverage isn’t available for something like this.
“There’s no insurance on this business; this is the only cigar tobacco farm in Florida.”
He employs 165 workers at his stores and on the farm. Farmworker Jenn Patterson bundled up to work in the tobacco field today. “Layer, the wind up here cuts through your clothes. Short sleeve, long sleeve, hoodie, jacket on top.”
She’s also worried about the cold weather. “It would be devastating because we put a lot of work into this field.”
But now all that hard work may get the cold shoulder. There’s no way to protect the plants. “I’m pretty confident we’re gonna get a bad frost tonight, but if we lose it we’ll start again.”
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