Perennial Harvest

     Perennial Harvest is the title of a memoir by Philip Hillyer Smith, another of Sherman's writers. Thoreau like, he describes his experience living in a house, much like Hidden Hollow, but with no modernization. After emailing back and forth with his grandson, I determined the location of the long road to it, but alas, encountered the gate you see on the left.

     I continued on to my appointment at the Akin Free Library on Quaker Hill. There the librarian, Jim Manchachia, let me study the Merritt and Toffey Store ledgers. Sure enough I found that the Hidden Hollow families crossed the hilltops to trade there.

The final event of the day was a celebration of the 40th year of Sherman's Naromi Land Trust. Their President, Marge Josephson, had invited me and let my former Hidden Hollow next-door-neighbors know I would be there. It was great fun, although the only other person I recognized was an octogenarian, the last of the farm families. Naromi has worked at the complicated task of maintaining the rural nature of the town.

To my surprize, the food was from The Cookhouse in New Milford, a bar-b-que place I'd been longing to try. Once again, "Who knew?" There is great bar-b-que in Connecticut; probably the best ribs ever.