Tobacco typically grows an inch a day, so the harvesting of leaves can begin as early as six weeks after planting. It’s a necessary process to help make room for new and larger leaves, but also a delicate one, Ms. Martin explained. For a leaf to be marketable, it has to be blemish free — no spots, holes or creases.

Assuring this often requires workers to crawl on all fours through rows of closely sown stalks that can grow 10 feet high. The ideal, ripe leaf is about 30 inches long; once dried, it will wrap about four cigars, said Ms. Martin’s sister, Susan Connor, 40, who has no qualms about getting down on her hands and knees, too.

“There’s no automation in tobacco farming,” Ms. Connor said, noting that this year they tried hardier seedlings and installed drip lines that deliver water and fertilizer directly to the roots of plants.

The highest-tech gadget they use, Ms. Connor said, is a bicycle-powered conveyor belt; as someone pedals, the belt transports picked leaves from the middle of each row to packers at the end.

“To produce a crop that’s going to get you the highest yield, you need to give it your full attention,” she said. “We have no specific job titles here. We just try to keep things running smoothly and do what needs to be done. For me, that often means getting down and working.”

It can also mean spending a July day in breezeless fields from dawn till dusk. Yet it’s the Connecticut River Valley’s 15 daily hours of summer sun and nutrient-rich soil that make tobacco grow so well here. Such ideal conditions, though, do not make farming it any less difficult, Ms. Connor said. “But it means something when your family is there with you,” she added.

Like many Connecticut tobacco farms, Brown’s Harvest is a family business, with Ms. Martin’s and Ms. Connor’s parents — Stanton and Jane — and their brother Kevin all taking on multiple roles and responsibilities.