East End farms grow niche crops for specialized markets

 

(Newsday) The idea to grow tobacco on the North Fork of Long Island came to Michael Chuisano about five years ago, as he sat on his deck, gazing across the water at the not-so-distant shores of Connecticut.
For generations, some of America's most prized tobacco for cigar wrappers has come from farms along the Connecticut River, which empties into the Long Island Sound just eight miles north of Chuisano's home in Orient Point. If the stuff grows in Connecticut, he thought, perhaps it could grow on Long Island. Continued