Astronomy, geometry, philosophy: A walk in the woods with Plantin’ Seeds

FALLS VILLAGE — For many of us, the official first day of fall, Sept. 22, is an anticlimax. The weather may not have changed much yet, but school has started, the sweet corn and tomatoes have stopped appearing on our plates and the J. Crew catalog has arrived at the post office advertising topcoats and turtlenecks. 

The equinox occurs when the sun travels across the celestial equator, which marks the division between the northern and southern hemispheres. 

Ancient cultures commemorated the equinoctial dates as a time of reflection and giving thanks. In present-day Falls Village, Dale McDonald, the inventive mind behind the Plantin’ Seeds Farm Kitchen in North Canaan, is bringing back these natural points in the year as an opportunity to commune, pause and experience.

On Sept. 21, the eve of the equinox, McDonald invited guests to join her in a silent walk across the expanse of the wooded area of her property, Pom’s Cabin Farm in Falls Village along the Housatonic River. 

Cloaked in flowing royal blue, with her hair wrapped in white linen and eyes shielded by flamingo-pink sunglasses, McDonald, a former Wall Street trader and a member of The Lakeville Journal executive committee, seems to have rediscovered herself in the people and natural surroundings of the country. 

Spirited and confident, she uses the word “magic” to describe much in her current life and speaks with evident affection for the group she works with. One young Plantin’ Seeds team member described being “rescued” by McDonald from a previously despised job. “Coming to work with her changed my life.” 

The idea behind Plantin’ Seeds is as fresh as its food, and therefore not entirely easy to describe. It’s not a restaurant, nor a café nor a grocery store — but it is a little bit of all those things, and is entirely in service to the community. 

The silent walk was one such service, a way to engage with her guests. It was led by horticulturalist Robin Zitter, whom McDonald found through “Magic, it’s all magic here,” and birdwatchers Maryanne Pitts and Sariena Masiero of the Ralph T. Waterman Bird Club in Dutchess County, N.Y. 

Along the walk, Pitts could hear calls from “crows, a white-breasted nuthatch, a wood duck flying over, kingfishers along the river …”

“A titmouse!” added Masiero.

“A rufous-sided towhee,” Pitts continued. “Then I heard something and I didn’t know what it was. I looked around — but it was someone playing on Dale’s swing.” 

The adult-sized swing, which guests were eager to try out, looks out over a view of the Housatonic. 

By 7 p.m., the sun had set, and the trail naturally led out of the evergreens and to the “cabin” of Pom’s Cabin, a high-ceilinged farmhouse with sliding glass doors and decor at once sumptuous and cozy, combining rustic wood accents with Asian artifacts (McDonald rang a full-sized gong before a thank-you toast). Nightfall was the perfect time to gather inside among the stacks of hardcover art books. Plantin’ Seeds chef Brandon Scimeca had prepared hot cups of soup using McDonald’s freshly picked tomatoes and slices of grilled cheese — comfort food in appearance, but the taste was expertly raised to the next level, along with hearty pours of pinot noir. 

“I’ve celebrated the solstice just because I was looking for something that wasn’t Christian, that wasn’t coming from a place of deep understanding at first,” McDonald laughed, explaining some of her philosophy over freshly baked snickerdoodles and glasses of milk for dessert. “But my favorite book right now is ‘Becoming Animal’ by David Abram, and it talks about direct experience — when your bare foot is on the grass, and you push through and mud comes up through your toes. Long ago we began to separate and we’ve been doing so ever since. There’s a hunger in the human soul that wants that experience, that intersection instead of division.” 

Her search for secular communion led McDonald to the vesica pisis, the name of the intersection between two congruent disks. It’s a geometric symbol with a deep history, appearing since antiquity in art, architecture and divination. 

“I was at this dinner party and [former Congressman] Dennis Kucinich and his wife [Elizabeth] were there,” McDonald continued. “She’s this drop-dead gorgeous, 20-foot-tall woman … you can’t believe she can be so pretty and so, so smart. I told her about vesica piscis and she said she had this really good friend, he’s some magical something, who did his PhD on vesica piscis. She sent me his 800-page work, I couldn’t read all that! But what I gathered, what was interesting to me, is raising awareness of the intersections that we share. 

“There’s enough conversation already about the things that we don’t share. That’s the whole concept of Plantin’ Seeds. ‘Authenticity’ is an overused word, but I wanted to create spaces that bring people together, and where you can feel real.”