I was a kid watching Abbott & Costello, when I first Ella Fitzgerald sing this song. Today, as I listened to her sing this kiddie, joyful song of her little yellow basket, it brought me to post about these once used tobacco baskets. The tobacco basket was used until about 1980, to display tobacco taken to market. The crop is grown throughout North Carolina, primarily on family farms. According to the NC Dept. of Agriculture, North Carolina farmers today produce approximately 2/3 of the US crop of flue-cured tobacco.
After sorting and grading, the leaves were tied into “hands.” A hand of tobacco weighed about 1 pound if made of tips or lugs and about 2 – 3 pounds if made from cutters. A hand of tobacco is a group of leaves tied together at the stem end. The end is wrapped in another cured leaf.
The hands were then laid in the tobacco basket in a circle with the stem ends pointing to the outside. The baskets were then loaded and taken to the tobacco warehouse where they were sold at auction. Today these baskets are used for more decorative purposes.
Placed neatly behind this lamp – it makes for the perfect backdrop
Very creative way to display the modern deerhead
The entryway was accented with the basket above the table flanked with candleholders
Here it makes for excellent wall art in this bedroom
A wreath made of cotton is attached to the tobacco basket and hung on the outside of the home
When placed behind the mirror, it gives the mirror more eye appeal
and the perfect accent for a country kitchen
Tobacco baskets are old and some are even broken, but they still offer an array of ways to decorate with them. They may not be the type of basket Ella sings about but, it’s the basket I chose to write about. However, if I found Ella’s basket I’d like to give her this and say “Thank You” for making a beautiful music.
