TRADE SECRETS GARDEN TOUR 2017
POM'S CABIN FARM IN TRADE SECRETS GARDEN TOUR
"This landscape is an expression of historical, cultural, and ecological life in the Northwest Corner of Connecticut. As we grow in relationship to this land, and as its potential is revealed, a sense of place emerges. We are not so much on this land, as of it."
Pom’s Cabin Farm is a richly-varied twenty-seven acre piece of land along the Housatonic River that is nurtured and celebrated by its owner, Dale McDonald, and her dedicated team headed by horticulturist, Robin Zitter.
Robin’s initial priority in 2007 was to get a sense of place and to develop a relationship with it, “working with the forces of nature to enhance and steward the land.” By listening to the land and through observation, she leads her devoted team toward a richly interconnected and regenerative system that values all who live here.
Diversity is expressed through differing habitats including meadows, woodlands, wetlands, and a dynamic floodplain along the Housatonic River. Thoughtful ecological practices encourage native plants through a variety of restorative approaches: Paths now wend through woods, whose dominant understory of Japanese Barberry is considerately managed: Meadows have been seeded with native flowers and grasses.
An edible human imprint is threaded throughout the landscape with a variety of cultivated vegetables and fruits: A large blueberry field is home to cultivated and native bee housing projects and neighboring Shitake log cultivation; hedges of raspberries, red, black and white currants, gooseberries and elderberries nestle above the flood plain.
Energy conservation is addressed through solar panels, a geothermal system, cisterns and vegetated swales, even as PCF explores solar thermal and compostable heat sourcing.
This landscape is an expression of historical, cultural, and ecological life in the Northwest Corner of Connecticut. As we grow in relationship to this land, and as its potential is revealed, a sense of place emerges. We are not so much on this land, as of it.
MAP OF POM'S CABIN FARM
WATERCOLOR MAP BY DEBORAH M. O'CONNOR
TRADE SECRETS ANNUAL EVENTS FUND WOMEN'S SUPPORT SERVICES
Trade Secrets 2017 proceeds will be used to fund WOMEN'S SUPPORT SERVICES education and counseling programs and to provide direct funds to help clients with legal, housing, transportation, and medical emergencies. The mission of Women’s Support Services is to create a community free of domestic violence and abuse through intervention, prevention, and education. Women’s Support Services (WSS) is a non-profit organization that has provided critical services to victims of domestic violence and abuse in the towns of Salisbury, Canaan, Falls Village, Cornwall, Kent, Sharon and nearby New York and Massachusetts since 1981.