There was a time when swirling leafy clumps of tobacco plants were found back-to-back to back along Kentucky’s farming landscape. However, that’s not the case today. With the health impacts of smoking well documented and consumption falling steadily over the years, full-time-only-burley growers are hard to find. A father and son are still making that work on farmland on the Fayette-Clark County line.
Ben Webb describes the scene as rows and rows of brown-dried tobacco hang from the rafters of the 100-year-plus-old barn. He and his dad Benny are fully involved in the burley growing business. The 62-year-old Webb said he was about raised in a tobacco barn.
