Protected by: Connecticut Farmland Trust
Year Protected: 2008
Acres: 75
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Cato Corner Farm is a 75-acre national award winning dairy farm run by Liz MacAlister and her son Mark Gillman. They have been producing artistinal raw milk cheeses from their herd of Jersey cows since 1997.
Liz sold a conservation easement on 31.5 acres of the farm’s pasture and grassland to the USDA, Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in 2006 in the first phase of Cato Corner’s preservation. In 2008, the Connecticut Farmland Trust helped Liz and Mark complete the second and final phase of preserving Cato Corner Farm. Liz donated a conservation easement on the 75-acre farm, which includes extensive pasture and woodlands, a farmstead, and a farm store. By protecting the entire farm, including the pasture and grassland already preserved by NRCS, CFT ensures that the farm’s land and agricultural infrastructure, which are both critical to the operation’s sustainability, cannot be split apart.