Your guide to the heart of Litchfield County:
Discover local stories, hidden gems, and must-know events.

By Linda Tuccio-Koonz

Photo by Zandria Oliver

Marty’s Café serves everything from perfect paninis to savory salads, but frankly, the fresh-baked cinnamon rolls are reason enough to frequent this cozy eatery, now in its 17th year.

“Our menu changes seasonally. Almost all of our ingredients are sourced locally,” says G. Blane Withers, who co-owns the Washington Depot café with his husband, Stephen Lewis. Even the ice cream is local; it’s from Harry Rowe, of Prospect’s The Big Dipper.

“His chocolate ice cream is amazing,” Withers says. “He won’t tell me what the special ingredient is, and I respect that. He also does custom flavors. He’s done chai, a pineapple coconut, and another with espresso and caramel vanilla.”

Both co-owners have longstanding careers rooted in public service (Lewis, in hardware, and Withers, in marketing). “We put a lot of emphasis on customer satisfaction and exceeded expectations.”

Withers originally brought Marty’s to life as a tribute to his former husband, Martin O’Brien. They’d planned to run a café together, but O’Brien, a hotelier and chef, unexpectedly lost his battle with cancer in 2005, at age 47.

“I was a deer in headlights the first three years; food service was not my background,” Withers says. Even so, “It’s been a labor of love since day one. My customers are also my friends and neighbors.” 

Community in mind, Marty’s is increasing its hours as of Memorial Day weekend—closing at 8 pm rather than 5 pm, Fridays through Mondays. “We’re just going to keep the lights on and see what happens.”

A Culinary Treasure

By Linda Tuccio-Koonz 

Only open a short time, Bantam’s elegant Materia Ristorante is already beloved for its creative Italian cuisine, and recently underwent a complete redesign of its dining room and bar area.

“We’ve grown so much since we first opened because we’ve learned so much from our guests – their likes and dislikes. It’s taken us in new directions,” says chef David DiStasi, who co-owns Materia with his brother, Michael.

“From developing a chef’s tasting menu to give more of a journey to our guests, to offering more vegetarian items, we’ve seen what people are looking for and adapted,” says the CIA graduate, who honed his craft in restaurants such as the Michelin starred La Trattoria Enrico Bartolini, in Tuscany.

Components of each dish at Materia are either made by hand or sourced locally, says service manager Christopher Hodson. “David has an amazing team. His risotto is very special; it’s made to order every time.” 

And the newly renovated dining area, with its wraparound banquette seating and lighting with gold accents “matches the sophistication of the food.” 

It’s no surprise the Connecticut Restaurant Association named Materia 2022’s “Best Newcomer.” First-time visitors should splurge on the seven-course tasting menu. A true experience, it features appetizers, two pastas, and a fish and meat course, all beautifully presented, ending on a sweet note. 

“We call it ‘Il Viaggio,’ which is a journey, a trip,” DiStasi says. “We like to describe it as a trip to Italy. It’s to highlight who we are.” —materiaristo.com

Morris is Now Home to Litchfield County’s First Food Park 

By Charles Dubow

Exciting things are happening in Morris. At the crossroads of Rts. 109 and 63 there has been a surge of activity over the past few years. Long home to Don Giovanni Pizza, Finellis Restaurant & Bar, and Bella Luna Gifts, The Wise Old Dog, a high-end wine and spirits store, opened there in 2022, and recently BritsBrand bakery opened its first commercial kitchen. And, beginning in June, the brains behind wedding and event space The White Barn at South Farms, Ben Paletsky and Sarah Worden, debuted their latest project, Litchfield County’s first food park, Pasture. 

Located on farmland owned by Ben’s family for four generations, Pasture is comprised of three food trucks: Iron & Grain, serving wood-fired food such as barbecue, bleu cheese burgers and turkey sliders, as well as local craft beers and signature cocktails; chef Tyler Anderson’s Ta-Que, serving classic Tex-Mex tacos, burritos, and smoked meats with a twist; and Granby-based Grassroots, scooping up creative New England-style ice cream in such unique flavors as Rose, Chocolate, and Goat Cheese Black Berry. 

“We wanted to have a nice range of food offerings,” says Ben. “A lot of food trucks are getting tired of having to drive around and are looking for a more permanent base. That’s what we are giving them. We’ve cleared enough room to accommodate 40 parking spots and seating for up to 100 people.” If the Pasture is a success, there is a chance that it will expand to more trucks and more parking. 

Both Pasture and The White Barn were born out of Ben’s desire to help keep his farm going. “It’s increasingly difficult for these old family farms to survive,” he says. “Politics over the last half-century have been devastating to the farm economy. There used to be 40 dairy farms in the area. Now it’s almost zero.”

While it is still a working farm, in 2015 he and Sarah re-imagined South Farms as a hip event space. “Both Ben and I have a background in design,” Sarah says. “After he moved back with his family and I found myself living here, we teamed up.” The old dairy barn has been beautifully converted into a kitchen and bar area and the old equestrian center is now a vast dining space. “We can easily host up to 150 people for weddings, conferences, any kind of event you want to do. And we can do it year-round.”

Behind this space is a garage that has been transformed into a woodland wedding chapel and a large field where on Thursday evenings between June and September they host South Farms Social, where people can come and spread a blanket, have a picnic, and listen to live music. If they don’t want to bring their own meals, Pasture’s food trucks are only a short walk away.

“Ben and Sarah reached out to me about doing a food park,” says Tate Nordin, who founded Iron & Grain in 2015. He has plenty of experience in the business, having opened West Hartford’s first food park, Gastro Park, an “indoor/outdoor foodie playground” in 2020. It didn’t take much convincing. “It’s a win-win,” Nordin says. “Pasture is a casual laid back experiential dining concept where people can choose their own adventure, whether they are looking for a quick lunch or want to make an afternoon or an evening of it.” 

Everyone in town is excited about Pasture. “It’s great that the town has been so flexible about allowing all this to happen,” says Jacob Studenroth, owner of The Wise Old Dog. “It’s really putting Morris on the map.”

Pasture will be open June through October, Thursdays 5 – 8 pm, Friday – Sunday 12 – 6 pm.

2 Watertown Road, Morris, southfarmspasture.org

Cancer Survivors Find Joy, Fitness in Rowing

By Cynthia Hochswender

Photos by Jacolyn Brown

The ladies of the lake glide across Lake Washinee in Salisbury on a misty, early spring evening. They reach forward, dipping their blades into the darkening water as sunset approaches, eight bodies pulling in unison.

Then someone tells a joke and the rowers burst out laughing and begin to chat as the coxswain yells at them to “Set the boat!” which means they’ve ceased their machine-like and steady rowing and are now in danger of either flipping over, or just going continuously in a circle.

No one minds. It’s not a race. These are all women who’ve won a much more important race, against cancer. Life is precious; laugh when you can; love your teammates. And above all, in this moment, “Set the boat!”

The Tri State We Can (Women Enduring Cancer) Row team was created in the early 2000s by Salisbury resident Noreen Driscoll, who’d lost close friends to cancer and had organized a number of different fundraising and memorial events. She earned a $5,000 grant from the Livestrong Foundation and used it to organize a rowing team, after contacting Holly Metcalf of the Boston We Can Row team (Metcalf was studying the benefits of rowing for cancer patients and survivors).

Yes, there are health benefits. But members of the Tri State We Can Row team say the camaraderie is as important as the fitness benefits.

“It’s taught us balance, given us strength, and created friendships,” says Donna DiMartino of Sharon, a member of the team and former hospice director for the Salisbury Visiting Nurse Association.

“We talk to each other in ways we can’t talk to other people,” she adds. “We can talk about surgery. We are a resource. Women call us when they get a biopsy, and we walk them through the process.”

“We are an open book,” agrees Jacolyn Brown of North Canaan, “but mostly what we do together is laugh.”

And row, of course. Winter workouts are on ERG machines; some of the rowers have their own machines at home, but others meet up once a week to use the machines at the all-male Salisbury School. Dick Curtis, the former rowing coach, welcomed the women to the school when they started and, working with Salisbury School, was able to provide a boat for the team to use. He and others including Rob Bettigole, Sally O’Connor, and Lisa Taylor helped coach the fledglings; Carl Jenter for years has motored alongside the rowers in the motorized launch, there to help keep them steady, safe, and dry.

Early on, the team did compete in some races, notably the World Rowing Indoor Championships in Boston. The indoor races are, of course, on the ERG machines that are an essential part of training. 

“They teach us the sequence of legs, backs, arms,” explains 82-year-old Cicily Hajek, of Sharon, a founding member of the team.

Perhaps the team will compete again, if new members express an interest. For now, the rowers are content to slip silently, in unison, across the lake, stopping to gaze at eagles, cranes, and hawks.

New members are welcome. Training is provided. There is no age limit and no experience is needed, and men are invited to join. All rowers must be survivors of cancer, and must be willing to take part in the rather zen activity of rowing together.

“You have to row as one,” says DiMartino.

“And when you do, it’s glorious,” says Leslie Allyn of North Canaan.

Tri State We Can Row meets on Thursdays at 6 pm. from May to late October. —rowstrong.org

Adamah Farm produces over 50,000 pounds of food each year, while also hosting bi-annual cohorts to learn about sustainable agriculture and Jewish ecology

By Gavi Klein

Photo credit: Courtesy of Adamah Farm

Tucked in a quiet corner of Falls Village is Adamah Farm—ten acres of diversified veggie fields, growing chestnut groves, and lush green pastures. Adamah is a part of the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center, which hosts Jewish events for people and organizations around the country. Over the course of the year, the farm produces over 50,000 pounds of food, with about 10,000 pounds going to local food pantries, 20,000 pounds being used in the commercial kitchen on the retreat center’s campus, and the rest being carefully packed into the farm’s weekly CSA. About 80 local families are members of the CSA, and from June through November, they receive a curated box of fresh, local produce each week. The farm is also used to feed those who work the land, namely the bi-annual cohorts of Adamah Fellows who come to learn and live in community for three months at a time. “Adamah is a special place to many people,” says farm director Janna Siller. “For some, the local produce allows them to eat as though they had a fresh vegetable garden behind the house; for others, the farm itself provides a transformative place of learning and growth.” Over the past 20 years, Adamah Farm has been home to over 500 fellows who come to learn about ecologically-based Judaism, practice sustainable agriculture, and of course, to experience the beauty of Adamah Farm. 

Superfood Ingredients Made Convenient

By Clementina Verge

Washington resident Adrienne Lufkin wears many hats: mother, wife, professionally-trained private chef, community volunteer, and now, founder of Struesli—a new organic brand of granola packed with superfood ingredients that is drawing praise across the country.

“I had a hard time finding a granola that is sugar and sweetener free, and packed with good-for-you superfoods and nothing else,” notes Lufkin, whose personal quest for clean eating fueled the desire to create a better product.

“I’ve suffered from chronic migraines and Crohn’s disease my whole life,” she states. “If only my younger self knew what I know now about the direct relationship between clean food and better health. It wasn’t until I attended culinary school and began cooking for clients, some with serious health concerns—like autoimmune diseases and cancer—that I adopted a cleaner way of cooking for them and for myself.”

What makes Struesli granola “redefined” is everything it contains and everything it doesn’t, explains Lufkin who was trained at The French Culinary Institute in NYC after earning a bachelor’s degree from Fordham University.

“Look at the ingredients in most “healthy” granolas and you’ll realize how high in sugar many of them are,” she advises. “Struesli gets its slight hint of sweetness from tiger nuts and unsweetened coconut flakes. That’s it.”

Additional sources of healthy fats, minerals, and vitamins include pecans and walnuts rich in omega-3, fiber-boasting flaxseeds, and chia seeds packed with antioxidants and inflammation-fighting properties.

“Struesli makes convenient the healthy nuts and seeds we all have in our pantry in one delicious product,” Lufkin remarks. “I wanted it to be organic, with no fillers or additives, and appealing to as many dietary choices as possible. This is why it’s gluten-free, grain-free, plant-based, with no added sweeteners and no cost-cutting fillers.”

Manufactured in Vermont, Struesli features two flavors—Original and Cacao + Coffee—with a third in the works. Ingredients are sourced from U.S.-based organic suppliers, Lufkin notes, except for imported tiger nuts that are not commercially grown in the U.S. 

Lufkin brings to the brand more than 15 years of nutrition knowledge and a desire to share what has benefitted her. She enthusiastically details her connection to the community, from Winvian Farm where she got married, to the Hotchkiss and Rumsey Hall schools where her daughters attend and she serves on the Board of Trustees, to Marty’s Cafe, a family favorite. 

A fan of Arethusa ice cream and walking the Steep Rock trails, “I’m the lady with the Leonbergers,” she playfully declares, Lufkin is passionate about sharing a versatile, “super clean” product with others.

From flavorful breakfast parfaits, convenient snacks, and salad or even ice cream toppings, Struesli has many uses, and is available online or at local markets, including Roxbury, New Milford, Bantam, and Washington Depot.

“This journey started with an idea that has led to new experiences, new friends, new abilities and accomplishments. That is the real joy in life,” Lufkin reflects. “Having the idea of Struesli evolve into an actual product that people buy and benefit from is the icing on the cake.” —struesli.com

“Produce to the People” Feeds Those in Need

By Wendy Carlson

Michelle Shipp and Chris Mullins concede they didn’t know much about growing vegetables when they first started farming on a small plot at Lorch Community Garden in Cornwall a few years back.

 “YouTube and Google became our good friends,” jokes Michelle, a retired kindergarten teacher who relied on the Internet and a lot of trial and error for the first year.

To their delight, they harvested more beans, carrots, and kale than they needed so they donated the overflow to the Cornwall Food Pantry. When the pandemic hit they learned the number of families relying on the pantry jumped from four families to 40, they had an “a-ha” moment. They launched Produce to the People, a grassroots effort to put fresh surplus produce on the plates of the people who need it most. 

Michelle got the word out through social media, calling on backyard gardeners to contact her at produce2thepeople@gmail.com. Turns out, there are a whole host of backyard gardeners throughout the community with an excess of veggies who are looking for ways to share their bounty. She had a growing list of gardeners and a crew of volunteers who were willing to help with pick up and delivery.

 The project couldn’t have come sooner for Barbara and Brent Prindle of Sharon. Brent has had a garden going on 63 years, but with just the two of them at the house they found themselves with a tsunami of veggies. As much as they loved curly kale, it was growing out of control.

”It just kept growing and growing. I was like making kale shakes every other day,” quips Barbara.

That was good news for Michelle and Chris. As they see it, there can never be enough kale, or any vegetables, to fill the community’s growing need. When the Cornwall pantry has enough in stock, the excess produce is delivered to other food banks in the northwest corner.

With the cost of living skyrocketing, fresh, organic, locally-grown produce shouldn’t only be for those who can afford it, says Michelle. At today’s prices, she estimates Produce to the People donated up to $6,000 worth of veggies in 2022 with half of that coming from the couple’s harvest on a one-eighth acre plot.

They’re hoping their idea will take root in other towns. “We want to inspire other communities to do the same thing because there are so many individuals with so much bounty and unfortunately there is such a great need,” says Michelle.

It does require dedicated volunteers. “Produce to the People is not so much a charity as a solidarity,” explains Chris. “Growing vegetables is just one part, you need people willing to pick up and deliver the produce.”

But it is work that can feed your soul. “When you give people real healthy food they start to feel like people really do care about them, and that can be a game changer,” says Michelle.

On a larger scale, the Northwest Connecticut Regional Food Hub is yet another group that collects fresh produce from Litchfield County farms and distributes it to schools, restaurants, grocery stores, and institutions. The hub also has an online ordering and billing system operated by the nonprofit Sustainable Healthy Communities Inc. The hub makes it possible for farmers to work together to meet the growing demand for local, sustainable food in the area, and they benefit from the marketing, selling, packaging and delivering of their produce. When it was launched in 2018, 10 farms sold produce to the hub; that number skyrocketed more than 30 in 2022. 

Heather Dinneen, Cornwall’s director of social services, is grateful for the help the pantry receives from local farms and Produce to the People. “Michelle and Chris take care of everything and the food just appears, cleaned and ready to go. It has allowed us to serve so many more people with a wider variety of produce,” she says.

For more info on Produce to the People, email Michelle Shipp: produce2thepeople@gmail.com

Learn more about the Northwest Connecticut Food Hub at nwctfoodhub.org

For the past seven years, Books & Blooms, a two-day garden event and benefit for The Cornwall Library in Cornwall, Connecticut, has been one of the most popular and enjoyable highlights on the calendar of Litchfield County garden lovers.

This year, on Friday June 16 at 6 p.m., renowned horticulturist and botanist Peter Del Tredici, senior scientist emeritus of the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, kicks off the festivities in the UCC Cornwall Village Meetinghouse, 8 Bolton Hill Road, with a talk entitled The History of Lawns: From Pasture to Plastic. He will present a brief history of the lawn and the techniques used to create and maintain it, and will explore the social and ecological issues surrounding its use in modern landscapes as well as the pros and cons of various alternatives to lawns, concluding with a discussion of the alarming trend to replace real grass with plastic turf. Following his talk, ticket holders are invited to a cocktail reception at a nearby private garden. See ticket information below.

At 10 a.m. on Saturday, the fun continues with self-guided tours of four gardens, three of them new to the event—a bucolic farmland garden with glorious views, the gardens of a historic Cornwall estate, a formally planted but surprisingly unconventional garden in North Cornwall, and a beautifully maintained meandering family garden in West Cornwall.

Garden 1 – A Country Estate
Cobble Hill Farm is one of Cornwall’s hidden treasures—a farm established in 1860 with the later addition of an elegant brick Georgians-style manor house. A traditional flower garden surrounds the house and a charming tree-covered path leads from the patio to an artist’s studio. The 187 acre property has lush shrubbery and hedging, specimen trees, an extensive orchard, and many outbuildings, including two huge barns and an antique sugar maple distillery.

Garden 2 –  An Idyllic Farmscape
In 2011, when the current owners purchased Whitcomb Hill Farm, they decided to think less about creating a garden and more about maintaining and preserving their 200 acres of farmland. While they have updated and added to the perennial beds around the house and planted new trees, their primary focus is to preserve the old-fashioned quality of a traditional Connecticut farm and let nothing distract from the magnificent views of this unspoilt pastoral landscape.

Garden 3 – Formal But Not Traditional
A North Cornwall garden that surrounds an 1827 house and is shielded from the road by a row of 250-year-old sugar maples. Features include a boxwood parterre, two long flowerbeds planted for drama and height with perennials and annuals, a small enclosed kitchen garden, a rill and fountain bordered by a hornbeam wall, a birdhouse village, and a large number of container plantings staged on a brick pathway.

Garden 4 – A Bucolic Cottage Garden
This West Cornwall garden is bordered by old stone walls and mature trees including a large magnolia along with several crab apples. Flowerbeds are home to a mixture of native specimens and shrubs as well as perennials, biennials, and woody perennials. A small vegetable/cutting garden gives free rein to the foxgloves that are allowed to volunteer wherever they choose, while buddleia and several varieties of echinacea give the garden a cottage feel and offer beautiful mid-summer color.

Ticket Information

Tickets are $30 for the talk and cocktail reception. $30 for the garden tours, or $50 for both. Please register and purchase tickets at: https://cornwalllibrary.org/books-blooms-2023

Tickets and maps for the garden tour may be picked up at the Library on Friday, June 16 between noon and 6 p.m., or on Saturday, June 17, from 10 a.m., where there will also be the opportunity to purchase cut flower arrangements, donated by members of the Cornwall Garden Club, and a sale of new and out-of-print garden books. #SPONSORED

ASAP!’s spring fundraising gala, ASAP! Celebrates Joy, will be held on Saturday, June 3rd at 6pm at The Frederick Gunn School in Washington. Congresswoman Jahana Hayes will host a festive evening of cocktails, live music, and dancing, with a live showcase of ASAP! programs. Two ticket tiers are available. Ticket sales support ASAP!’s mission to foster joyful learning through the arts. To learn more, visit their website asapct.org.

ASAP! Celebrates Joy is made possible in part by ASAP!’s community partners and event hosts: Aspetuck Animal Hospital, Baker Law Firm, County Wine & Spirits, Frederick Gunn School, Klemm Real Estate, Litchfield Distillery, New Morning Market, Pilobolus, SEP Orthopedics and William Raveis Lifestyle Reality.

From left to right: ASAP! Program Director Ali Psomas, Congresswoman Jahana Hayes, and New Opportunities’ Family Development Specialist Thalia Castro under the tent at ASAP!’s 2021 fundraising gala.

By Daniel Furman

Connecticut is a challenging environment to grow fruit. All the more to do so organically in the home orchard. Our winters are normally long and cold. Due to climate change, the winter we experienced this year, mild with sudden bouts of arctic cold, may become the norm. Both scenarios can damage the buds on many different types of fruit trees. When spring finally arrives, so does the humidity and insects. Rarely is the damage caused cosmetic only; often pests and diseases conspire to ruin a harvest of apples, pears, and peaches which has not been treated with a combination of insecticides and fungicides. It’s important to recall that all of our most commonly consumed tree fruits are not native to New England, let alone North America. They can hardly be expected to have evolved to withstand the climate and environment in which we now plant them. 

Lest the would-be orchardist be discouraged by information above, allow me to introduce pawpaws (Asimina triloba) as an elegant solution to the problem of what kind of fruit tree can be grown organically and harvested reliably in Connecticut. Pawpaws are the largest fruit native to North America. Their ruggedness and versatility make them ideally suited to the backyard orchard or small-scale market grower. The fruit, which resembles a mango in shape, has a sweetness more often associated with produce native to the Southern Hemisphere.

The pawpaw is the only temperate climate member of the Annonaceae family of tropical fruits that include cherimoya, soursop, and custard apple. They are found in the wild from New York west to Nebraska, and south to Florida and Texas. So, while not really a Connecticut native, they are a very near neighbor. In regard to hardiness, established trees can withstand true zone 5 winters of -20° F. 

Insects and deer show a natural aversion to pawpaws, a result of the fatty compounds called acetogenins that are produced by the trees. The compounds are found in the leaves and twigs, and are what give crushed pawpaw leaves and bark their very strong and distinct peppery smell. Though, as any Connecticut gardener knows, our deer have voracious appetites and eclectic palates. Despite the acrid taste of pawpaw leaves, I have on occasion had deer browse young trees. This, combined with the risk of deer trampling small trees, has taught me to protect vulnerable young pawpaws with chicken wire cages for the first few years. 

Like many fruit trees, pawpaws take some time to reach fruit-bearing age, generally about six to eight years old. Even before they begin to produce fruit, pawpaws provide interest in the landscape with their long, slender, teardrop-shaped leaves. 

Pawpaws flower in mid-May, and somewhat resemble downturned purple trillium blossoms. The petals are a beautiful shade of dark brownish purple. The unusual look of the flowers attracts an interesting gang of pollinators. Beetles and blow flies, insects associated with carrion, which the scent of pawpaw flowers mimic, are the principal ones. Don’t be put off with a vision of swarms of flies attracted to the fetid odor of flowering pawpaws. The scent is very slight and not at all disagreeable, or even discernable. 

The fruit is mango-shaped and greenish-brown when ripe. Individual fruits can weigh between four ounces and one pound, and the flesh is soft and juicy. The skin always retains a slight astringency even when ripe, so this must be avoided along with the large kidney-shaped seeds. The season is late September to mid-October in Connecticut. 

In my experience, the flavor varies greatly between different trees, with some rather bland, and others cloying. But the best pawpaws taste like banana custard with notes of pineapple and mango. 

Curious to try a pawpaw? As with many fruit trees, they take a few years after planting to begin producing fruit. However, these days, the fruit can usually be found at specialty natural food stores and farmers markets.