Pop Quiz Answer

Ashley was right in that they are growing tobacco, but there is more to the story then that. The tobacco they are growing is Connecticut Valley Shade tobacco which is used for cigar outer wrapper mainly in the finer grades of hand made cigars. They grow it under the tents so that the leaves become wide and flexible. Then they dry it in the special barns in which they can control the moisture content to keep them soft and pliable.
Back in the sixties there was a movie about it called “Parish” staring Troy Donahue, Claudette Colbert, Karl Malden and Connie Stevens made about the tobacco plantations of Connecticut. Back in the fifties and sixties when you drove through the Connecticut river valley all you saw were endless fields of shade tobacco and now they are far and few between. In their place are rows and rows of condos and homes.
And here you thought tobacco was only grown down south.