In this special video, Jeremy Reeves, Director and Head Blender of Cornell & Diehl, is on-location at 31 Farms in St. James Parish, Louisiana, where the Roussel family continues to grow and process Perique tobacco. The family continues the legacy of their family's trade as the third generation, embarking on the journey to bring Perique into the next generation.

[Jeremy Reeves]: I'm standing right now in a historic Perique-processing barn that is now defunct, but it's on the property of Ricky and Barbara Roussel, proprietors of 31 Farms. They are our Perique partners. The folks at 31 Farms are basically third-generation Perique processors. Ricky grew up working Perique, his wife Barbara grew up working Perique, and he and his son Derek are trying to bring Perique into the next generation.

Perique Farming & The Soils

[JR]: Ricky, you grew up basically in Perique.

[Ricky Roussel]: In Perique and vegetable farming.

[JR]: And how many farmers were there when you were coming up?

[RR]: We probably had 200.

[JR]: How many farmers are there now growing Perique in St. James Parish?

[RR]: Today? Two.

Grand Point, if you're familiar with that, is a high ridge. It was a ridge that was built over time as the rivers would rise in the spring. The deposited sand layers and silts right in that area created alluvial soils.

When the first Acadians came in, that's where they settled. My great-great-grandfather was granted a 200-acre farm. My family tried growing vegetables and they said, no, the only thing that land is good for is tobacco. So they grew tobacco.

[Derek Roussel]: This whole deal started from what is a break in the river, back before it was a levee. It sat there and produced sediments, but it wasn't a one-time thing. This is a result of years and years. I'm definitely a guy that wants to understand the science in soils, and so I got caught up into what makes the 200-acre triangle special. There's a piece of three soils that mix in here, and soil is built over hundreds and thousands of years.

Three Generations of Perique Farming

[RR]: The methods were handed down here from the Indians who loved tobacco. A few of the farmers asked how they grew it. And the Indians showed them.

They brought my great-great-grandfather into the swamps, and they showed him how to work in the Bottomland Hogwoods. They brought them out to some hollowed cypress stumps, and they showed them how to open them up and pull the tobacco out of the stump.

Pierre got the idea to build boxes because they didn't have much room. He came up with the idea of building boxes, and then they had quarter-inch rods put on each end where they could secure the box tightly because of the handling of those boxes and the pressure of the rocks being put on. They used to use balance rocks, which came off of river boats going back and forth to the river and the ocean, and when they got to the destination to pick up products, they would unload balance and load it back with barrels of sugar, tobacco, and indigo, three major crops back in the early 1800s.

From that square box, in the early 1900s, Christophe Roussel, the grandson of Maximilien, came up with the use of valves. New Orleans was having barrels shipped to them with ryes and whiskeys inside, so they didn't have any use for barrels. He figured out that we could use those barrels, which would make it a lot easier to press more tobacco instead of those little boxes, because in the barns, they had to stack all these boxes. They moved on to the barrels and we've been using that same procedure ever since.

They would go to the barns and within two to three months, you take the tobacco out of the barrel, put it on the table, work it, and then flip it, and whatever's on top of the barrel goes to the bottom of the barrel. We still do that today, every three months.

It's a unique process. It's a lot of work. Every time you open that valve, you get a sense of your aging process and what you gotta do if something is not right. You need to be careful. Some valves might hold a little more water than the other, so when that happens, you'd leave it out a little longer.

Sometimes, in good weather like this, we'd leave it out at night and cover it with a burlap sack just to let it keep airing and drying, but not allow it to pick up any moisture. It was a taboo to pull tobacco out of a barrel when it was cloudy or raining. You know you better not lower the humidity again.

[JR]: When you remove the pressure, the tobacco's like a sponge, and it's like pulling everything that's in the air into it.

[RR]: The most immediate part is that when you have — we're gonna call it green tobacco — we strip, de-stem, wash, de-stem, and put it in the barrel at the back that has so much heat and it's fermenting so fast that if you put too much pressure on the barrel, it'll actually pop the ring or blow the bottom out of the barrel, and the barrel will slide up that jack all the way to top. We had that happen plenty of times. The bottom was still on the ground, and the barrel just went up, and you got that stack of tobacco just here.

We learned that you have to put the jacks on it, with a little pressure. The next day, you go there and if you could turn it once or twice, and you just keep slowing. It may take a turn in heads to get where you can't screw the barrel down anymore, for a while, then all of a sudden the juices will start rising and exit pulling moisture off of that. Normally, what we do is leave, and the water goes down once we put the tobacco in it for at least 20 days. You can see it bubbling, and when it quits bubbling, that's when we turn the water off. As long as it's bubbling, it's fermenting.

Perique Methods Passed Down

[DR]: Information is limited because this is a process that was handed from generation to generation. That's what's unique about it. As the new generation, I wanted to make it easier. There are smarter ways of doing things, doing all those pieces with it, and that's really what transformed my inspiration and love for it.

Then I embraced that these old processes are what make it great. It made me realize that the grandfathers before us knew what they were doing. This isn't rocket science. We want to question what they did because we don't have the knowledge of why, but it was a trial-and-error process. You're not doing this and failing two years in a row.

When you fail, you're gonna go back and you're gonna tweak it through trial-and-error, and it ends up having this steady principle that they go with. I don't know if every generation can tell you the reason, but there was a reason why they did it. There's a reason barns are situated a certain way there, and I'm not telling you they knew why, but they knew how to fix it because if you fail two years in a row, you're probably out of the tobacco business.

[JR]: Yeah, that's a good point.

[DR]: It's just too hard not to succeed. I've learned that. Now our discussions are more of, this is what they did before. Let's figure out why they did it, and let's make sure we stay true to that, because that has a place in Perique. It's really simple things, like spacing. I'm convinced that all the little things matter with this product.

[RR]: It's a very unique process. I love it. It keeps me interested. We don't lose too much sleep unless we get a flood, rain, or hurricane. That's the bad part. But, other than that, it's an enjoyable crop to go out and tend to. Every day since I planted at the back, I'll meet those fields every day. I'll walk 'em, but the process is handed down.

It's sad when older people are dying off and passing away. All the younger people could remember is what they saw that their grandfathers and their dads did, but they didn't know why they did it that way. Very few had the energy to ask them why. If I asked my grandfather why I had to do this, he'd hit me in the head and say, because I told you to. That's the way life was.

[DR]: You always read that it was very specialized, and it had a richness to it, but not necessarily on a value of wealth or anything. It was just sought after for what it uniquely offers in the market. The market isn't widespread; it fits the crop. The crop is very small and it's a tight niche. It comes from a person that really appreciates it.

The Next Generation of Perique Farmers

What's nice is the people who really appreciate it, and like what we do, they like that unique part and set of values to it, and that's what I'm gonna try and get these kids to understand, on my end. I'll try to keep it a generational product. You gotta play the patience game.

I still think there's a set of ownership. We always have our family weekend. We always push ourselves. This crop sometimes requires every hand on deck. Instead of becoming overwhelmed, we embrace that deal. We embrace the grandmother bringing out sandwiches to you because you're gonna take a 30-minute lunch and then you'll keep working. There's value to that side of it. I think there'll be value in the long term.

I think what happens is no different than my experience. I was around it, but I didn't get to participate in it as much as I would've liked to. By allowing that participation, it will come full circle to where they'll realize, hey, this is something cool that our family did that we're gonna continue to do.

[JR]: Absolutely.

[DR]: I really believe that'll happen.

[JR]: Thanks so much for joining us for all of this and a big thanks to 31 Farms for hosting us and allowing us to come in and see a bit of what they have going on here. They provide all of the Perique that Cornell & Diehl uses in any of our blends that contain Perique, and they've been doing it a long time, the right way. If you want to experience real St. James Perique, check out some of our blends that contain Perique. We'll see you next time.