August Vine 2022

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ALL-STAR ANIMALS Four-footed Islanders hog the limelight Rose's Revivals: The Larder & Whippoorwill Farm Bob Pacheco, Mr. Reliable Olivia Rabbitt's Blooming Business Foodies of Instagram Chef Charlie Granquist, cooking garden to table Cicilio Rosa Neto & Chilmark the Ox

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CONTENTS, AUGUST 2022

Departments Features

4 Editor’s Note

14 Who's the Fairest of Them All? These four-footed Island residents are hogging the limelight.

BY THOMAS HUMPHREY

5 On the Rock There's an app for that 8 Q&A Mr. Reliable: An Interview with Bob Pacheco 10 Vine & Dine

18 In Bloom The Farm Chef Flower farmer Olivia Rabbitt brings joy to her customers with personal- 23 The Oyster Foodies of Instagram ized bouquets.

BY ELIZABETH BENNETT

20 And the Larder Makes Three With business acumen and gastronomic passion, Rose Willett doesn't mind having a full plate.

BY THOMAS HUMPHREY

25 By the Numbers Summer Eats 26 Insta-Island

Cover photo: Cicilio Rosa Neto and his ox Chilmark. Photo by Ray Ewing.

From the Editor

Farm Fans

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O

n the Vineyard, we love our farmers. We love the flowers they grow, the vegetables they sell, the animals they raise. We love the comforting sight of their orderly fields, filled with sunflowers or newly mown hay, passing in our rearview windows as we go about our crazy summer lives. We love that we can stop by a farmstand nearly any hour of the day and find something fresh and delicious, pulled from the earth hours ago by our hardworking friends and neighbors. We love that simple suppers come together effortlessly after a stop to pick up tomatoes and corn and perhaps Island-made sausages and Island-baked bread.

August is the month we celebrate our farmers: the 160th Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society Livestock Show and Fair is on for August 18-21. So it seems only right to spotlight farm and food folks in the August Vine: flower grower Olivia Rabbitt of Piecemeal Farm (page 18), entrepreneur Rose Willett who recently reopened The Larder in Vineyard Haven (page 20), chef Charles Granquist who is the new culinary director at Slough Farm (page 10), and some very special Island residents: Crouton the pig, Scooby the bunny, Tony the Pony, Moshup the bull, Fred Tilton the goat and Chilmark the ox (page 14). Give them a high-five when you see them – and have fun at the Fair.

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–Susie Middleton

EDITOR Susie Middleton ART DIRECTOR Jared Maciel CONTRIBUTORS Elizabeth Bennett, Sissy Biggers, Chris Burrell, Alexandra Bullen Coutts, Ray Ewing, Nicole Fullin, Laura Holmes Haddad, Thomas Humphrey, Jeanna Shepard, Maria Thibodeau PUBLISHER Jane Seagrave BUSINESS MANAGER Sarah Gifford DIRECTOR OF SALES & MARKETING Skip Finley | sales@mvgazette.com SALES TEAM Frederica Carpenter, Amy Kurth, Garrett Burt, Carrie Blair MARKETING MANAGER Alessandra Hagerty AD PRODUCTION Jane McTeigue, Jared Maciel, McKinley Sanders Copyright 2022 by the Vineyard Gazette Media Group. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher.

To subscribe to the Vineyard Gazette, visit vineyardgazettestore.com Vineyard Gazette Media Group P.O. Box 66, 34 So. Summer Street, Edgartown, MA 02539 thevine@mvgazette.com | 508-627-4311

ON THE ROCK SISTER SHOP Meet MV Botiga In the little Greek revival building on 15 Church street, behind the Edgartown courthouse, the MV Salads sun is rising behind a wall of hanging rocks.

“In Oak Bluffs, everybody takes their picture with the rock wall, so it was logical to have one here,” says Susanna Herlitz-Ferguson, owner of MV Salads in Oak Bluffs and MV Botiga, her new Edgartown store.

dog bowls and more. The merchandise shares shelves with other Island-made brands such as MV Sea Salt and Mimi’s Hittin’ the Sauce.

While there isn't a commercial kitchen in MV Botiga, the store has a refrigerated case filled daily with a selection of MV Salads wraps, including favorites like the lobster cobb salad and vegan options like the Tivoli cauliflower.

Offerings feature a healthy serving of MV Salads’s famous salad dressing, called MV the Dressing.

The dressing is also available for purchase by the bottle at both MV Botiga and MV Salads. It’s made, says Susanna, with “a splash of kindness,” her secret ingredient for success.

MV Botiga is open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily.

Susanna opened MV Salads in 2019, but her background is in graphic design.

“I had this idea that, once my four kids were grown up, I wanted to do something that I had never done before,” she says.

HIKING 2.0 Try the new and improved TrailsMV app The TrailsMV app had its genesis on a rambling up-Island hike.

“The idea started on a walk with Alan Rappaport, chair-elect of our board of directors,” said Adam Moore, president of the Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation.

“We got a bit lost in the woods off King’s Highway in Chilmark while trying to find a Sheriff’s Meadow property.”

While backtracking onto their route, the pair got to talking about how to make Island trails more accessible. Eventually Alan exclaimed: “If only there was an app for that!” The idea for TrailsMV was born.

The app is a collaborative project, containing over 200 miles of trails from all Island conservation groups. It was released in 2018, but in 2020 project manager Nancy Tutko began a major revamp. She was uniquely situated to work on such a project, having edited Will Flender's Walking Trails of Martha's Vineyard guidebook.

"Flender was my intern at the Vineyard Conservation Society," Nancy explains. "He started walking the Island trails back when he was 14."

When Flender began his survey, he had to manually track each trail with a

Ray Ewing

Her design experience is evident in the products available at MV Botiga that are branded with the distinctive Love-Island logo, with its bold expressive lines reminiscent of Keith Haring’s style. The cheery logo appears on clothes, aprons, tote bags, water bottles, surveyor's wheel, but technology has progressed considerably since the late 90s. Chris Seidel, the Martha’s Vineyard Commission’s cartographer, suggested to Nancy that they develop the new version of the TrailsMV app using the ArcGIS geospatial software, a cloud-based mapping and geographic data analysis system.

“ArcGIS is used by most conservation groups and towns on the Island,” Nancy

says, “so it enables more collaboration and easier updating.”

The software's capabilities, Nancy explains, meshed well with their targets for the new version. “We saw an increased use of the app during the pandemic,” she says, “but had difficulties updating it with new features that we wanted.” They teamed up with developer Blue Raster to implement the new technology; the company plans to present their efforts

to other GIS developers at the Esri User Conference later this year. The new software will allow the TrailsMV app to update more frequently.

The updated TrailsMV app is free to all and useful both to novice hikers hoping to not get lost on winding trails and to experts, who can take advantage of its excursion routes. (Once downloaded, no wifi is needed as GPS guides the way.)

More excursions, which string together smaller trails into one continuous stretch, have been added to this newest version.

Two of the more recently added excursions – the Aquinnah Headlands and the African American Heritage Trail – have incorporated the Island’s cultural history, something that Adam and Nancy hope to continue. The new version also includes event listings for the Island’s conservation properties.

TrailsMV will continually be updated in coming months. Plans for future updates include a feature to track and upload your trips, and one to string together your own excursions.

The project was sponsored by Cape Cod 5, The Edey Foundation, The MV Bank Charitable Foundation and the MV Community Foundation along with individual donors.

Find TrailsMV in the App Store. Or find more information at sheriffsmeadow.org.

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THAT’S THE SPIRIT

Meet Dawnie Walton

Gin for a Vineyard martini

Dawnie Walton’s first novel, The Final Revival of Opal and Nev, is the perfect read that places two unforgettable characters – rock and roll artists — in a masterfully crafted story within a story (narrated by a magazine editor) that also exposes inherent issues of both sexism and racism within the music industry.

There’s time to grab it and read it now before Dawnie Walton speaks on Island August 4 as part of the continuing Martha’s Vineyard Author series. She will be in conversation with Dawn Davis, editor in chief of Bon Appetit and Epicurious.

DIGITAL CYCLING Take a tour David Hobart first arrived on the Vineyard in 1979, biking off the ferry and into the Martha’s Vineyard Family Campground where he stayed for the July Fourth weekend. It’s a bike ride that seems to have never ended.

Over the last 40 years of vacationing here, and a decade of full-time residency, he has biked thousands of miles across the Island, both alone and with his wife and chil-

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A gin and tonic might be summer’s swellest drink, but Martha’s Vineyard Wine and Spirits’ new Vineyard Style Dry Gin is just too good to mix.

“Any kind of tonic is just going to cloud the botanicals in this,” says Brion McGroarty, the shop’s owner and commissioner of the new spirit. “This gin is perfect for a martini.”

The event begins at 7:30 p.m. For more information, visit mvbookfestival.com. dren. Now he hopes to pass along some of the lessons he’s learned through a series of digital Island cycling tours he’s developed, which are available on the Built Stories app.

David’s tours are almost all loops, ranging from five to 20 miles, and they cross different skill levels.

“Vacationing with a young family, I was very conscious of picking the safest route,” he says. “So we tried to take the roads less traveled.” David said that down-Island trails are typically better for less experienced bikers. The West Chop

The product, a collaboration between MV Wine and Spirits and Black Button Distillery in Rochester, N.Y., has been brewing in Brion’s head for years and he and East Chop tours are easy and each is about five miles long.

Families can also trace the Obama family’s biking route on the 10-mile Presidential Path tour or take several other tours, including the Forest Primeval, that include the peaceful bike path through the Manuel F. Correllus State Forest.

There are currently seven different tours, and 11 more are planned. Each is $10. Preview tours at app.builtstory. com. Search for Martha’s Vineyard Bike Tours and/or David Hobart.

Thomas Humphrey

ON THE ROCK BOOK IT

developed much of the recipe himself.

“It’s a classic citrus dry gin,” he said.

The rinds of Florida lemons, oranges, and grapefruits, along with the obligatory juniper berries, form the backbone of its flavor profile.

The addition of beach plums gives the drink an Island flair, adding a bitter complexity, while pink peppercorns lend it a warm, lingering finish. That heat was supplemented by grains of paradise, an uncommon spice that Black Button added to the recipe.

“That was a surprise,” says Brion, “but it works. They know what they’re doing.”

It is rounded out by a variety of botanicals.

The gin is for sale (while it lasts) at MV Wine and Spirits in Edgartown for $39.99.

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Q&A / VINEYARD VOICES you needed to step up as a young man after your father’s passing to take the helm of what was then a 20-year-old business in its first location just down the street.

A. My father passed in 1965 soon after I graduated from high school. I was only familiar with the groceries and produce.

My dad did the meat cutting.

Q. That must have been tough for you as a young man?

Jeanna Shepard

A. Well, it was challenging. One of my uncles was also a butcher and he came to help. I remember he said, ‘In good times or bad, people will always have to eat. Whether in war or peace or anything in between. Give it a try for a couple of years and if you decide it’s not for you, you’ll just go to college and be two years behind your friends.’

Q. How did you ultimately become a butcher?

Mr. Reliable AN INTERVIEW WITH BOB PACHECO

BY SISSY BIGGERS Reliable Market, the Oak Bluffs grocery anchor in the center of Circuit avenue, has fed the Island’s year-round and summer communities with consistency and value since 1947. It’s no secret that the force behind this Oak Bluffs family institution is its patriarch, Bob Pacheco. It can be a little scary to observe Bob wield a 12-inch carving knife, greet customers, keep an eye on the busy deli counter and monitor the store’s constant replenishing of the shelves without a slip of the blade.

Bob is the very embodiment of the word reliable: committed, trusted and consistent. But it is his firm hand that has kept this now 75-year old family business thriving and growing. This summer he purchased another Circuit avenue mainstay, Phillips Hardware just next door – no surprise to the community that counts on Pacheco’s commitment to Circuit Avenue.

On the day of my visit to talk with Bob (or Bobby, as some call him), the meat case was stacked with barbeque favorites, ground chuck burgers, carved steaks, bone-in short ribs and even rosy pigs tails for those with a hankerPage 8 · THE VINE

ing for a southern braise. I watched as Bob finished a precision breakdown of a ruddy tenderloin, wiped his hands on his butcher’s apron and then, amidst the eager greetings and pats on the shoulder from his longtime customers, guided me through the swinging doors to a tiny office tucked behind palets stacked with products.

Q. For our interview, I reached out to longtime summer resident and celebrated food historian Jessica Harris who told me, “Every summer when Bobby looks up at me and says, ‘hello young lady,’ I know I’ve returned home.”

What’s it like to have a customer of Ms. Harris’s culinary caliber?

A. She’s just the nicest lady, and to be honest with you, at first I had no idea about her credentials – so to speak. You could tell she knew what she wanted by the way she would order, and then I

heard her on the History Channel. Then I come to find out she’s got a James Beard Award.

Q. The Lifetime Achievement award in fact!

A. She likes lamb legs.

Q. What other summer celebrities or culinary stars come through your doors in a season?

A. Every one of my customers is a celebrity. Through those doors walk my customers, the nicest people in the world.

A. I thought about what he said, and I decided if I am going to go into the meat business, I need to learn it the right way and in a hurry. At the time we did business with Armour & Company, the big beef wholesaler, and they sent me to the National School of Meat Cutting in Toledo, Ohio.

Q. Would that be done now – being sponsored by a meat company?

A. Yeah. I think so. Butchers are different people but they’re good people and in eight weeks I became a butcher.

Q. When I stopped by to set our meeting on behalf of the Vineyard Gazette Q. Is your customer always you greeted me as “the right? hamburger lady.” Do you A. Yes. And they’re always the customer. associate most of your cusSo if I don’t have what they need, I’ll get tomers by their preferred it. Just ask. cut of meat?

Q. Is Jessica Harris the A. My regular customers buy the same items and you put two and two togethonly one who calls you er. Some people only buy porterhouse; Bobby?

A. They call me Bob or Bobby. Nobody calls me Robert. If they say Mr. Pacheco or sir, I always say, ‘Sir was my father, and he would never let you forget it.’

Q. Pictures of your father Eddie and your mother Helen hang above the meat counter. I understand

some people only buy Delmonico.

Q. Then I guess ‘hamburger lady’ is a good name for me. I tell everyone they are the best on the Island.

What’s the secret?

A. Well, today we don’t use any preground meat. We use whole muscle cuts

Q&A / VINEYARD VOICES that we cut in house. We always sanitize the grinder several times a day. That’s important.

Q. Can you guess the number of patties you sold on the Fourth of July?

A. We did about 85 pounds of patties. A little over 400. My son Eddie’s 15-year old twin boys made the patties.

Q. Your Sunday hours, 9:00 a.m. to 1 p.m., have not changed in decades.

That is a busy morning with your loyal Brazilian community. How did you adapt your butchery to their tastes?

Q. Is it true that you share a family lunch every Sunday with your co-working family – your wife Donna, your son Eddie, and your daughter Jenn and their families?

when people come in through the exit.

That’s never good.

have plans to celebrate this great milestone?

Q. You always seem so unflappable. Do you treat every day the same whether it’s a Fourth of July or the Wednesday before ThanksA. Yes, at my house. Eddie has a big famgiving?

A. Hopefully we will be able to do some things in the fall. We will work with our suppliers and get our customers some great specials and promote it.

A. No fish. Meat and potatoes. My wife is from the Midwest.

One at a time. Thank you for waiting.

Q. Your family business is a part of the Martha’s ily and Jenn has her family. We have six grandkids so not every Sunday. Donna A. Never let them see you sweat. It Vineyard Museum coldoesn’t do any good if you panic. If lection of historic photocooks. Usually, we have steaks. there’s a long line of customers on a Sun- graphs. How does it feel to Q. No fish? day, it’s one at a time. That’s all you do. be a part of Island history?

Q. The sign says: Reliable Market Parking Only.

There is no better honor parking lot on the Island!

A. When the Brazilian people started settling on the Vineyard, we had a Bra- It always seems to work zilian gentleman, Antonio, who worked even on the busiest of holifor us who was bilingual. He spoke Por- days. What’s the secret? tuguese and very good English. He was a tremendous asset because he was able to translate, and he gave the Brazilians a comfort level. They knew he was always here. He would tell me what they wanted, and I would make the cuts. They like boneless top butt and they love beef ribs.

A. No secret.

Q. I think it’s because the town’s respect for you extends into the parking lot.

A. I’m too young to be in a museum.

Q. Congratulations on the purchase of your Circuit avenue neighbor, Phillips Hardware. What has been the response to the big announcement?

Q. Thank you Bob Pacheco for a chance to learn about your thoughtful and grounded approach to this family business. Next time I see you I will call you A. A lot of positive comments. "Thank Bobby! you for keeping the Phillips girls there" and so forth.I think it’s good for the town.

Sometimes you just need to step up.

Q. You’ve stepped up for many years. By my calcuA. Hopefully that’s part of it but some- lations this is the 75th year times the tempers will get a little frayed of Reliable Market. Do you

Sissy Biggers is a longtime television journalist now living full-time in Oak Bluffs and working across different media to contribute to many Island organizations.

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VINE & DINE

The Farm Chef

That was the pivotal moment in Charlie’s approach to cooking.

Chef Charles Granquist is the new culinary director at Slough Farm in Edgartown.

BY LAURA HOLMES HADDAD • PHOTOS BY JEANNA SHEPARD What do a music major, chef, food stylist, Food Network culinary producer, culinary school instructor and Chilmark resident have in common? A name. Chef Charles Granquist, who prefers to be called Charlie, brings this varied background to his new position as culinary director at Slough Farm in Edgartown.

While Charlie’s adult life has been centered in Manhattan, he is no stranger to the Island; he spent childhood summers at his grandfather’s house in Chilmark. Working with food caught his interest even then: his first summer job was scooping ice cream at Mad Martha’s and later he learned to break down fish at Poole’s in Menemsha.

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But his path to the kitchen took root in New York City, where his music background landed him a job at a sound branding company. Charlie quickly discovered his passion remained with food.

“I started going to [restaurant] kitchens at night and asking, ‘Can I come chop some things and see what’s going on?’” he says.

Charlie left the desk job to enroll in culinary school, completing the professional program at the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE) in Manhattan.

He cut his teeth at the esteemed Savoy with chef Peter Hoffman and then interned with chef Dan Barber of Blue Hill, known for his local, farm-to-table style.

“All my cooking from then on has been hyperlocal,” Charlie notes. He helped to open Blue Hill at the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture in Tarrytown, New York, learning the agricultural practices that drive chef Barber’s food.

Four years later and now married, Charlie left the grueling restaurant life for a culinary producer role at the Food Network. He worked as a food stylist and producer and then moved to the development side, bringing local food to Food Network restaurants in sports stadiums and airports across the U.S. After six years he was itching to get back to the kitchen and spent two years at Dickson’s Meats in the Chelsea Market, honing his butchery skills and learning to make charcuterie. Then another unexpected opportunity presented itself: a culinary instructor position at ICE. “I had never taught before but I loved it,” Charlie says.

But more change was ahead. In 2018 Charlie, his wife Lauren Lynch and their two sons packed up their apartment in Brooklyn and moved to Martha’s Vineyard, landing at his grandfather’s house in Chilmark, just up the street from Beetlebung Farm.

The hardest thing about relocating to the Island? No takeout. “We had lived on takeout for years,” Charlie says, laughing, reflecting on the busy life of two working parents.

A chance encounter with a fellow dog lover on Lucy Vincent Beach led him to the chef position at the Katama General Store. “I took over the kitchen for three seasons, which was harder than anything I had done in New York City,” he says. The level of production was intense, working seven days a week for the hectic summer season. When Covid hit, Charlie helped create Covid protocols and taught the young staff skills like pickling.

“We got as local as possible,” he said.

VINE & DINE

When Lauren was hired as the executive director of the Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society, Charlie left Katama General Store and devoted time to their sons. After cooking for a music residency at Slough Farm, he was offered a permanent role. The position gives him plenty of space for inspiration: creating dinners for the foundation, cooking for the founders and working with the FARM Institute on educational initiatives are just a few of his responsibilities.

“We’ve been on a culinary hiatus for the past two years and unable to host visiting chefs because of Covid,” he says, something he hopes will change in 2023.

Charlie has Brooke Ditchfield, the former theater teacher at Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, to brainstorm with, as she takes on her new role as program director.

“The main thing we strive for is food equity. Almost everything we grow we give to Island schools and the food pantry,” Charlie says. “Anything that [garden manager] Carla Walkis can’t give away, I will pickle and preserve.

Charlie’s dishes reflect his passion for local food with unexpected flavor elements: a recent farm dinner featured roasted pork shoulder, beets with coconut milk, and cabbage slaw with fish sauce and lime.

“I’m a reactionary cook,” Charlie says.

“I react to what I can create from the ingredients I’m given more than anything else. I like to be told what I have. I’ll text

Carla and ask what’s coming out of the garden this week and base the menu around that.”

Even the unforgiving winter months don’t deter his local approach: “I love the hyper-seasonality of cooking in New England,” he says. “I love the winter when the farmers are giving me pounds of kale and cabbage. It forces you to get even more creative.”

But Charlie’s focus for Slough Farm is on helping the local agricultural community and other Island chefs. “We’re committed to helping any other farms who need help. We can have things like soil seminars and gleaning seminars with Carla,” he says. “I can help cooks that want to learn how to cook seasonally and help young chefs. I’d love for this place to be a think tank, with young people coming in and working with farmers.”

Charlie points to the long history of agriculture on the Island as the basis for all of Slough Farm’s work. “This Island is historically such an agricultural hotspot and it’s been rejuvenated in the past 20 years, with younger farmers and then more chefs following the local approach to cooking,” he says.

At the intersection of sustainable farming and cooking, Slough Farm is an exciting spot for Charlie to write his next chapter in food.

Laura Holmes Haddad is a freelance writer living in West Tisbury.

IN THE SLOUGH FARM KITCHEN, Charlie Granquist turns garden produce into pickles and preserves, cooks meals for guests and for special events and collaborates with the rest of the Slough Farm team on ways to foster food equity and to improve cooking knowledge.

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Jeanna Shepard

Jeanna Shepard

SCOOBY

MOSHUP

FRED TILTON

CHILMARK

TONY

Ray Ewing

Ray Ewing

Ray Ewing

Jeanna Shepard

CROUTON

Who’s the Fairest of Them All? These four-footed Island residents are hogging the limelight.

BY THOMAS HUMPHREY As the human population of the Vineyard continues to grow, so too does its population of feathered and four-footed residents. A few of these animals have developed a certain celebrity in recent Page 14 · THE VINE

years, each with their own following.

From 3,000 pounds to less than one, these famous Island animals vary in shape, size, and countenance, but every one of them loves his or her fans.

Scooby in the Spotlight Grey Barn’s Scooby the rabbit is another celebrity parent, having recently sired six babies with his mate, Brioche. Purchased at the Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Fair three years ago, this Holland lop and mini lop cross has grown up in the spotlight, and it shows.

If Crouton is Kim Kardashian, then Scooby is Brad Pitt.

Photos by Jeanna Shepard

“He is an extroverted little bunny,” said Sarah Klein, one of his caretakers, explaining how unusual this trait is in his species. Scooby spends most of his time frolicking in the grass outside the Grey Barn farmstand, anxiously awaiting the hordes of children who come by to see him. When humans aren’t around, he enjoys visits from the farm cats and chickens.

In the off-season, however, he lives in

the barn. “I think he gets depressed in the winter,” said Olivia Kruczynska, another caretaker. “He misses his fans.”

He has more company now, especially from his girlfriend Brioche, a rescue bunny who Sarah found abandoned. Brioche currently has her hands full with the kids, all named for breads: Cinnamon, Pretzel, Chive, Sesame, Baguette and King’s Hawaiian. King's Hawaiian is the most energetic, taking after his father.

At five weeks old, the babies are in the middle of the ear-flopping process; each has one up and one down. They will soon be off to new homes, though Pretzel is planning to stay behind to keep his parents company.

The bunny farmers at Grey Barn anticipate many babies to come.

Now Appearing: Crouton and the Bread Crumbs One year ago, Crouton was a sickly little piglet, the runt of the litter. Today, she is a healthy, 300-pound mother of 11.

“I really didn’t think she was gonna make it on her own,” said Kyle Bullerjahn (above left), Crouton’s caretaker at North Tabor Farm. Kyle and Crouton first met when he was picking up a litter in Westport for another farmer. She was two months old, yet no larger than her babies were at one month. If left with the rest of the litter, her stronger siblings would have outcompeted her for food.

And so she was brought back to North Tabor to be nursed back to health – and spoiled rotten.

“She’s definitely a bit of a diva,” said Kyle. And farm manager Ruby Dix

(above right) agreed, “She’s got only-child energy.” Ruby pointed out that there are times when Kyle goes into the fields to hand-pick greens for Crouton.

Crouton’s prima donna attitude is not unjustified, however; she has a crowd of adoring fans in the kids who come to the farmstand to visit “Crouton’s Corner.”

Her children (the “bread crumbs”) are happy and healthy, soon to be weaned and moved to a larger pasture. They still wrestle over food, though not as much as when they were younger, and they’re warming up to company. For now they prefer to scratch their backs on visitor’s legs and nibble at their shoes, unlike Crouton, who expects generous head scratches.

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Moshup is All Bull

At around 2,000 pounds, Moshup the bull is somewhat smaller and prefers a dinner of fresh grass. He has chestnut hair, slightly wavy around the shoulders, and enjoys lazy chewing sessions with his sons Larry and Curly (bottom photo).

Moshup came to the Island in 2012, donated to Morning Glory Farm by Betsy and Jesse Fink to support Island farming. Since then, he has sired more than 150 offspring on the Island, spread across Morning Glory, Mermaid, Grey Barn, Nip and Tuck, Blackwater and Slough farms.

“He’s at the age where he pretty much does what he wants,” Dan said. At around 13 years old, Moshup is at the upper end of his breed’s age range.

Dan, who tends to the Morning Glory cattle, said that he usually thinks of the herd as one entity, but Moshup has been around long enough for Dan to get a read on his personality. Moshup is carefree, lumbering and occasionally willful. Dan recalled an occasion a few years ago when Moshup (quite easily) busted out of his enclosure and went on an Island walkabout, traveling from a pasture near the Morning Glory farmstand down to the Edgartown Great Pond.

Today, the fight has gone out of the old bull; he and Larry spend their afternoons lounging in the shade, licking each other’s fur.

Jeanna Shepard

Ray Ewing

The trio (Larry is destined to fill Moshup’s stud role, while Curly the steer is bound for market) are currently grazing on young velvet grass and wild chamomile at Dan Athearn’s Chilmark

residence. When Dan exclaims “Hey, cows!” the two sons raise their heads to attention, but Moshup ignores him.

Ray Ewing

In Wampanoag legend, Moshup was a benevolent giant whose thundering footsteps shaped the geography of Noepe (Martha’s Vineyard). His favorite food was broiled whale.

Fred Tilton is A Whale of A Pygmy Goat Pygmy goat Fred Tilton lives in a lush, clover-filled pen on Native Earth Teaching Farm, with his cousins Flashlight and twins Click and Clack.

Despite the abundant pasturage around him, Fred much prefers to be fed by hand. He and Flashlight often bump heads over handfuls of the same grass that can be found inside their pen.

Fred has big shoes to fill, explained his owner and caretaker Rebecca Gilbert.

“He was named after Captain George Fred Tilton,” she said. “He was one of the last generation of whalers, and he used to live in my house.”

Jeanna Shepard

Reading Fred’s autobiography (the captain’s, not the goat’s), Rebecca was shocked by the environmental destruction in the oil industry and how aware the captain was of it. She hopes the younger Fred might add a new chapter to this history by becoming a “climate Page 16 · THE VINE

activist goat.”

Fred and his kin express their activism through the consumption of invasive and unpleasant plants such as honeysuckle, bittersweet and poison ivy on preserves such as Cedar Tree Neck Sanctuary. But the goats’ prodigious appetite also has destructive potential.

“Goats have the reputation of being able to take a lush environment and turn it into a desert,” Rebecca said, referencing an old whaling practice of leaving goats behind to populate uninhabited islands. Whalers would return to find the islands with many more goats and many fewer plants.

For now, Fred is on break. Much of the attention at the farm is currently on the new goat kids, held in a separate pen, who will soon be old enough to participate in Goat Yoga, held all summer at Native Earth Teaching Farm.

Chilmark the Ox is A Gentle Giant Every Sunday afternoon, Cicilio Rosa Neto rides to Owen Park Beach in Vineyard Haven in a cart pulled by his beloved ox, Chilmark. When they arrive, they go for a waterfront walk.

“Chilmark loves the sand, but he hates the water,” Cicilio said. The duo has become a Vineyard Haven institution in recent years, often the first to greet visitors disembarking from the ferry nearby. The back of his oxcart reads: “Welcome to Martha’s Vineyard. God Bless America.”

Photos by Ray Ewing

Cicilio received Chilmark three years ago from Allen Healy of Mermaid Farm, whom he helps with milking and taking care of the herd. “I don’t do it for the money, I do it because I love it,” Cicilio said, explaining how it reminds him of his youth on a large farm in Brazil.

Over the years, the man and his ox have formed a tight bond. “Allen gave him to me as a baby, for meat,” said Cicilio, “but now he is like my pet; he’s never going to be a hamburger.” They spend lots of time together, though Chilmark had to be moved to pastures further from Cicilio’s house when his loud calls for breakfast kept waking the neighbors.

Chilmark will likely continue to grow for the next three years, bolstered by the exercise of his weekly beach trips.

But despite his size, his horns and the bad-boy look of his nose ring, the chocolate-brown giant is a real sweetie.

“It makes me really happy that people come to see him,” said Cicilio. “Everybody loves him and he loves everybody.”

Tony the Pony Tony Smalls, aka Tony the Pony, is perhaps the most talented animal on the Island. He can do tricks, paint pictures, play music, and is an accredited therapy horse. He is also very small, about the size of a Great Dane. He is black with a white spot on his torso, and all his legs but the front left have a white fur sock above the ankle.

Tony got a bit impatient before the performance, hammering his foot into the ground to show his frustration. “He’s anxious to create,” said Annie, as she had kids from the crowd pick out the colors for him to paint with. Tony uses his mouth to grip the brush. His style is bold and vertical, a daring technique in the tradition of abstract expressionism.

“He grew up in West Tisbury and he’s never had a bad day in his life,” said Annie Parsons. Though she is his owner, Annie said she feels more like a personal assistant during his shows. The duo are associated with Misty Meadows Equine Learning Center, where Annie teaches mounted archery. “They have this great mission to make horses accessible to everyone,” she said.

After being helped to give his hoofprint signature, Tony gave a performance on the keyboard, though he lacked the usual tambourine accompaniment from his daughter, Sugar Smalls. “She is extra sassy and knows exactly what she wants,” said Annie. Sugar is even smaller than Tony.

All of Tony’s talents were on display in his recent performance at the Chilmark Public Library. A crowd of youngsters anxiously watched as Annie set up a towel on which Tony would perform, essential to keeping his mind off the grass.

After the performance, Tony appreciated a snack of lush grass beside the library, as kids braided white clover flowers into his mane.

Thomas Humphrey is an intern at the Vineyard Gazette.

THE VINE · Page 17

In Bloom Flower farmer Olivia Rabbitt is always on the move: She grows in Edgartown, lives on Chappy, and sells her blooms at the West Tisbury Farmers’ Market.

BY ELIZABETH BENNETT • PHOTOS BY MARIA THIBODEAU Olivia Rabbitt’s smile is as wide as the sun when she hands her customers a personalized bouquet. But even brighter is the look on the face of the person receiving the flowers.

spent seven seasons (and off-seasons!) on the Island after her initial introduction through cousins who live here yearround. She is fulfilling her childhood determination to be a farmer.

“I really love the joy someone gets when you hand them their flowers. It’s a beautiful way to care for people,” Olivia says.

“I enjoy being part of communities that build tangible things,” she explains.

“Growing food or flowers is a clear way to do that. The system of growing food and getting it to people is fascinating to me,” she notes.

Olivia is in her second season of growing flowers at Piecemeal Farm, a half-acre farm she established through a private land lease in Edgartown. Though Piecemeal is only two years old, she has Page 18 · THE VINE

Farming in the context of an island’s unique topography is something Olivia is familiar with. She has worked on

farms in Costa Rica, New Zealand and Oahu. These experiences built on her first job working at the same family farm in Seekonk, Mass., where her father worked. Her decision to make the Vineyard her full-time home and farming site was based on the community here and how much it made her feel at home.

“Every kid should have an Emily who lets you play with her pet parakeets and teaches you about gardening,” she proclaims. “I learned so much from her about growing perennials and planting perennial gardens.” She also cites flower farmer Krishana Collins at Tea Lane Farm as a mentor.

Olivia learned about growing by working alongside people who transmit the earth’s secrets through practical, hands-on experience. Her first teacher was Emily, her next-door neighbor in her hometown of Rehoboth, who Olivia describes as a surrogate grandmother.

Olivia feels there are conditions specific to the Vineyard that growers need to be mindful of. “We are growing in sand and the soil here is pretty acidic,” she notes. “That’s why we have so many blueberries and oaks growing.

The soil system is different from other

places. You have to amend it with compost. Sand drains well, so you have to be sure to irrigate and make sure that what you’re growing has enough nutrients.”

She also advises home gardeners that they should spend time with their plants every day. “Especially if growing something for the first time,” she advises. “Not only because it’s fun, but also because a quick daily check helps you notice little changes and head off potential challenges before they become bigger problems.”

Because farming on the Island is seasonal, Olivia has usually held two or three jobs simultaneously. While holding “day jobs,” she also farmed her own plot at Island Grown Initiative’s community garden for three years. She joined the IGI staff in 2017 and worked there through 2021. Becoming an instructor and coordinator as part of the Island Grown Schools team gave her the opportunity to farm during summer months and work as an educator during the school year. The experience of providing the Island’s school-aged children with gardening, food education and exposure to local farms was meaningful work that influenced her experience of community.

Through Island Grown Schools, she was assigned to the Tisbury School. She lights up when recalling the work.

“I love that community and can’t say enough good things about them” she offers. “They were a joy. The teachers are amazing and supportive. The women in the lunchroom were incredible. Everyone really valued the program.”

“Kids notice the most amazing things because they haven’t been taught to

glaze over them,” she says. “Most kids are scientists. We are all natural observers and kids have an ability to tap into that if you give them permission to do it.”

“You can say ‘Today, we’re going outside. We’re going to lie under all of these different trees and you’re just going to be quiet. Tell me what you notice about the trees. How does it sound? What color is it? How does it smell to you?’”

While Olivia was at the Tisbury School, IGI expanded programming and Olivia is proud of the direction those changes took. “We started teaching food history courses to the older kids,” she recalls. “We held a cooking class that was fun. It was not too different from what FoodCorps is doing. This is part of what is happening across America now; there’s a lot of similar programming to change lunch programs and introduce garden and food education in schools.”

Olivia also co-managed the West Tisbury Farmers' Market with Collins Heavener from 2019 to 2020. That experience provided invaluable lessons about working in a community and what the challenges were in running a small business. She is glad to now be “on the other side of the booth” as she describes it. A new provision allows smaller vendors to share a space with one other vendor so that the cost and effort is manageable.

That has enabled Olivia to share a booth with Martha’s Vineyard Mycological.

During set-up and breakdown time, she enjoys talking with other farmers, comparing notes on growing conditions and flower and plant varieties.

AT THE WEST TISBURY FARMERS' MARKET, Olivia makes custom bouquets for customers with flowers they choose (right). "I love the joy someone gets when you hand them flowers," she says. Making flower crowns (top left) is another signature of her business.

Her booth is set up so that customers can see the flowers she’s brought to market and can collaborate on what goes into a bouquet. Some people tell her to surprise them; others know what they want; some gravitate to her booth because they spotted a particular flower from across the market and knew they had to have it. “Part of the fun for me is to work with people,” she says. “I’ll say, ‘Tell me your vibe or color scheme. Give me something to ground this bouquet. Is there anything, any one flower here that speaks to your soul that I missed?’ I’ve never had anyone frown on their flowers.”

Olivia is clear about how hard it is to start a farm. “Year two is great,” she proclaims. Over the summer, she’ll be leading flower crown-making workshops, setting up DIY flower buckets so brides

and hosts can create their own arrangements for events, and creating bouquets and settings for special events. She has lately enjoyed creating flowers for elopements and weddings.

When the season winds down, she’ll spend more time at her home on Chappaquiddick. She’ll continue creating garden kits for people who want to plant on their own. She works with private clients, tracking it all on Excel spreadsheets and working off a hotspot on her phone because her house lacks WiFi. The off-season gives her time to research and go for long walks during which she can daydream about – you guessed it – the varieties she’ll plant next year!

Elizabeth Bennett is community editor for the Vineyard Gazette.

THE VINE · Page 19

And The Larder Makes Three With business acumen and a gastronomic passion, Rose Willett doesn’t mind having a lot on her plate – a plate that now includes The Larder in Vineyard Haven and Whippoorwill Farm in West Tisbury as well as North Tisbury Farm & Market.

BY THOMAS HUMPHREY • PHOTOS BY RAY EWING The little green farmstand on State Road hardly seems able to contain North Tisbury Farm and Market.

Flowers and greenery explode from the front of the stand and creep up its columns. The shaded front porch houses trays of crisp greens and baskets of fruit.

Around back in the fenced field, prolific sweet peas climb trellises beside compact rows of kale.

Walk inside the farmstand and among a maximalist display of artisanal ingredients, you’re likely to find Rose Willett unpacking a shipment, captaining the counter, or pouring a cup of coffee.

She is a central figure in the Island food scene, not only as the proprietor of North Tisbury Farm & Market but also of Whippoorwill Farm in West Tisbury and the newly renovated Larder in Vineyard Haven, along with a host of past ventures. With business acumen and a gastronomic passion, she doesn’t mind Page 20 · THE VINE

having a lot on her plate.

Rose began her career in the high pressure world of Chicago commodities trading. But after returning from a Caribbean sabbatical, she found that the profession had lost its appeal and decided to switch gears.

“Somehow – I don’t really know how – I ended up as the manager of a jazz club and restaurant,” she said. She loved the job, despite the club’s 4 a.m. closing time and decided to start her own restaurant.

She had scouted a potential location in Chicago and was ready to commit until a -70° windchill reminded her of why she had taken that southerly vacation. She decided to consider other locales.

After several months of driving and one frustrating property negotiation in Florida, Rose remembered a pleasant trip she had taken to the Vineyard in February. The serene forests and empty roads were a nice counterpoint to the

A TRIO OF MARKETS: Rose Willett's farm and food business now includes North Tisbury Farm & Market (on State Road in West Tisbury), The Larder (on State Road in Vineyard Haven), and Whippoorwill Farm on Old County road in West Tisbury.

NORTH TISBURY FARM & MARKET features gourmet items, coffee, bread and cheese, as well as fresh produce and flowers from both Whippoorwill Farm and the growing area behind the market.

Windy City. She called an Island realtor on a whim, bought an old house in Oak Bluffs, and founded the Sweet Life Café with former partners; she sold the business shortly after the opening.

That was the start of her 27 years (and counting) in the Vineyard food arena.

Both of Rose’s parents grew up on farms and two of her grandparents were cooks; food runs through her veins. But she didn’t become involved in Island farming until 2007 when she and Robert Skydell founded Fiddlehead Farm, which occupied the same space that North Tisbury Farm & Market is in now. She eventually sold her share and the farm was

shuttered in 2016.

But in 2018 she re-leased the property and renamed her business North Tisbury Farm & Market.

The spot has an agrarian pedigree going back to 1938 when the famous Louis Greene, better known as Farmer Greene, farmed the plot for more than forty years. He had several greenhouses, at one point cultivating 16 acres of vegetable and flower fields. He also owned a green parrot named Pedro.

“He’s a legend,” said Rose, “I’ve had so many people come in the store, saying ‘I used to work for Farmer Greene. He paid

me 25¢ an hour.’” Louis Greene also led the Island rodent control program, was county soil supervisor, and kept an exotic fish, crab and salamander pond.

The cultivated area behind her farmstand is just a half acre, so Rose keeps the focus here on variety. Their pea harvest was particularly bountiful earlier this summer; the beautiful Sugar Magnolia purple snap peas were especially prolific.

“Right now, we’re picking fava beans, which is pretty awesome,” said Rose, who considers the Italian legume to be greatly underappreciated.

“They are a lot of work,” she said, describing the necessary process of shucking, blanching, peeling and cooking them again, “But they’re totally worth it.”

Rejuvenating Whippoorwill

WHIPPOORWILL FARM has a new life, now that Rose Willett has leased it from Andrew Woodruff and hired Rebecca Sanders to regenerate the fields. The old-fashioned open-air farmstand is stocked with vegetables and flowers straight from the field.

The farm stand is also stocked with produce from Rose’s newer agro-venture, the revival of Whippoorwill Farm. Last year, she leased the land on Old County Road from Island Grown Initiative farming consultant Andrew Woodruff, who ran the farm for many years before it was

left to go fallow.

Now Rose has hired seasoned farmer Rebecca Sanders to manage the Whippoorwill space (in addition to North Tisbury’s growing area), with consultation from Andrew as well. Rebecca and her crew are cultivating 3.5 acres according to the principles of regenerative agriculture, a movement in sustainable farming that focuses on minimum tilling practices that maximize soil health and carbon capture.

The path to reviving the farm was serendipitous for Rose, who initially reached out to Andrew with hopes of renting a small plot for greenhouse space.

“I’d always just had this affinity for the farm, and I would drive by and see it empty and think ‘somebody really ought to do something with this.’ So, I did something with it,” she said.

She seized on the chance to start a business that she felt could do something positive for the environment. True to her trading roots, she compared the growing impact of regenerative farming to growth of a bank account with comTHE VINE · Page 21

pound interest.

Rose’s sustainable sensibilities also extend into her inventory selection of seasonal produce and preserved ingredients at the North Tisbury farmstand. She tries to stick to items she herself wants to use. “I like simple, straightforward cooking; not a lot of ingredients, but really high quality,” she said. Recently she cooked a pasta carbonara, replacing the bacon with smoked duck breast that she sells at North Tisbury.

Opening Shop in Vineyard Haven Food at the intersection of sustainability and gourmet cuisine forms the basis of Rose’s newest venture, The Larder.

In late June, the rejuvenated storefront reopened in Vineyard Haven. The space was formerly managed by Jefferson Munroe of The GOOD Farm and coowned with the Scottish Bakehouse’s Daniele Dominick. Entrepreneur and investor Brook Katzen (Little House Café, The Cove Golf & Grill, Mad Martha’s) and business partner Jim Shane bought The Larder this past winter and leased it to Rose.

“Part of the reason I became interested in that location was to minimize food waste,” she said. “It has a commercial kitchen which will allow us to take advantage of imperfect ingredients.” She hopes to transform ugly or otherwise less desirable produce into prepared food.

The same low-waste approach will be taken with The Larder’s “nose to tail” meat production, headed up by Chef Tyler Potter of The Swimming Pig. Tyler still remembers the first sausage order he filled for Rose: a spiced north African merguez sausage made with Page 22 · THE VINE

Allen Farm lamb shoulder. Rose was impressed with his product and work ethic, and decided to bring him in as The Larder’s chef.

“I’m a line cook at heart, so I’m excited to get back in the kitchen,” Tyler said, adding “I hope we can bring a bit of a Parisian feel to the Island with this spot.”

Tyler cooked in both quantity and quality for The Larder’s opening in late June, preparing more than 600 pounds of meat product – not an impossible push for a man who used to run a 10,000 square-foot meat warehouse.

The effort Tyler and Rose put into opening day was evident. Inside the freshly shingled shop on State Road, distressed wood furnishings in beige and fawn were filled attractively with specialty crackers and oils. A refrigerated case in the front displayed neat rows of charcuterie selections: rabbit and pork pâté, duck confit, pork rillettes and seven kinds of sausage. The meats were joined by globally sourced cheeses.

To the right of the meat case, a refrigerated shelf held house-made prepared meals (ratatouille, Moroccan chicken, meatballs) and preserved veggies (kimchi, sauerkraut, pickles).

With a good eye for ingredients and for staff, Rose no longer feels the stress of a high pressure job. “I have really great people,” she said, “I feel well supported.”

But, she added, she still loves the frenetic energy of the summer season: “I’ve always been wired to juggle a lot of balls at once; that’s just the way I am.”

Thomas Humphrey is an intern at the Vineyard Gazette.

THE LARDER reopened in late June under Rose Willett's wing, with chef Tyler Potter of The Swimming Pig (top) manning the kitchen. On opening day, his charcuterie skills were on display in the meat case, along with his preserves and meals-to-go in the refrigerted cases and a curated selection of cheeses and gourmet items.

The @westtisburyfarmersmarket Instagram account promotes community and a sense of nostalgia by posting vendor photos and reposting photos customers take of goodies they've bought.

Foodies of Instagram For small businesses in the food and farm communities, social media is an essential communication tool.

BY ALEXANDRA BULLEN COUTTS Here’s a newsflash: social media is important! And it’s everywhere. It’s omnipresent in a way that feels a little… embarrassing to write about. Many of us spend more time than we’d ever admit scrolling, liking and wondering if our comments are clever enough and/ or effectively emoji-ed. And though there does seem to be a growing trend of setting limits or abandoning the photoshopped world of stories, posts and grids entirely, it’s also just a given these days that if you run a business – even (or perhaps especially) a small business on a small island that prides itself on promoting all things homegrown, homemade and analog – that business will likely require a presence on social media.

This standard is arguably true for

most, if not all, new Island businesses – from boutiques to barber shops, mechanics to yoga studios. But when it comes to Instagram perhaps no industry benefits from a better marriage of form and substance than the food and farming communities.

As manager of the West Tisbury Farmer’s Market (@westtisburyfarmersmarket) and founder of Fantzye Bagels (@ fantzyebagels) and Fantzye Suppers (@ fantzyesuppers), Elana Carson is responsible for updating a number of social media accounts. Since learning on the job at past positions at the Beach Plum Inn and Behind The Bookstore, she’s developed a style of casual yet informative posts, and tries to deliver content that will be relevant and entertaining to each target

audience.

For the farmers’ market account, it’s less about updates and more about a mood or feeling. “The market has always been super nostalgic,” Elana said. “People have always loved to promote their favorite vendors. They come every week to get their produce, and then bring it home to cook a meal.”

This time-honored, seasonal routine finds an easy parallel online. Whereas once news of a particularly popular vendor or time-sensitive ingredient would spread by word of mouth, now market visitors can capture photographs of their shopping trips in real time, sharing the soup-to-nuts process of an Island meal with followers far and wide.

“Now people like to share their mar-

ket haul,” Elana said. “They’ll share the dish they made, or the popsicle they ate.

It’s that same sense of fondness, of celebrating the market. And we can encourage that by having an active social media presence ourselves.”

In simple terms, “having a presence” entails little more than engagement. For an account like the farmers’ market, Elana says it’s just as important to stay on top of reposting others’ content – a way of sharing what people have purchased, cooked and enjoyed – as it is to maintain a schedule of her own regular posts.

“I don’t spend a lot of time trying to figure out algorithms or increasing engagement,” Elana said. “I just sort of post what I like.”

Fellow market vendor Eva Farber who, THE VINE · Page 23

remember to document every step and stage of a process or event, to ensure you have enough content to post later. “You’re always like, we just made so much beautiful food and I didn’t get a single picture of any of it?”

That’s when Elana and others call on a little help from their friends. Island photographer Elizabeth Cecil (@elizabeth. cecil) is often behind the lens of a number of local food accounts, helping to promote events or new food businesses or showing love to Island farms. “I’d just call Elizabeth and ask her to come over,” Elana said of her busiest bagel days.

“You’re never going to be mad about having too many pictures.”

For a mobile business like @goldiesmv, Instagram is crucial for communication.

with her partner Lexie Roth owns and operates Goldie’s Rotisserie food truck (@goldiesmv), says that as a mobile food business, social media is essential. “Our Instagram account is truly the public face of our business,” Eva said. This is due in part, she said, to a “generational shift in how we share information,” but it’s also just a practical solution to the transient nature of their work. “Social media feels uniquely tailored to our business model, where our location and hours are constantly changing. It’s important to have a way to instantaneously get the news out.”

In addition to schedules and menus, original content often and increasingly can come in the form of video reels, showcasing behind-the-scenes glimpses of food production and events in real-time. “It’s hard when you’re in the thick of it,” Elana said, of the struggle to

Another new favorite of market visitors and social media scrollers alike is Stoney Hill Pizza (@stoneyhillpizza).

Conceptualized in 2019 and launched during the first summer of the pandemic by Islander Nina Mae Levin, the heart of Stoney Hill is a mobile pizza oven that Nina designed and helped to build herself. “I had already planned on getting started and everyone was so bored (during lockdown) and I was just very consumed by this building project, trying to get materials so I could open that summer,” Nina said.

The process of building the oven became a much loved series of videos Nina has shared on her Instagram page. “I had kept the pizza oven pretty private,” Nina said. “I hadn’t really told anyone about it.

So when it was done I wanted to share it.”

As far as strategy, Nina’s past experiences managing social media accounts for brands such as Anson Mills has taught her that content often matters less than having a reliable presence. “Consistency is really important,” Nina said. “I always try to post the menus every week. Otherwise it’s mostly just pretty pictures of pizza.”

But for Nina, Elana and Eva, sharing photos and updates is just the beginning of the Instagram exchange; the real fun starts when their followers begin to share back. “We love how interactive it is,” Eva said. “It’s so much more than free marketing. It gives us perspective on who our customers are. People are always shooting us messages with feedback and fun little glimpses into their lives. Social media is very much in the spirit of a food truck: there’s no real division between the kitchen and the customer’s experience. It keeps things human.”

Sharing practical Information in the form of infographics is next-level social media.

Page 24 · THE VINE

Alexandra Bullen Coutts is a freelance writer and the editor of The Oyster. She lives in West Tisbury.

For @stoneyhillpizza proprietor Nina Mae Levin, social media consistency is key. She posts the upcoming menu every week and shares pizza photos regularly for engagement.

Welcome to The Oyster, your all-season, on-Island survival guide for young adults (and the young at heart!) You’ll find me – Alex – here in each print issue of the Vine with musings, interviews and tips for staying connected all year long. The party continues online at vineyardgazette.com/vine/oyster and on Instagram (@OysterMV). Drop us a note in the comments section online or email us at oystermv@gmail.com.

SUMMER EATS

BY NICOLE FULLIN • ILLUSTRATIONS BY CHRIS BURRELL

10 ON ICE. Hit the raw bars this summer and find local bivalves from more than 10 Island oyster farms.

LISTEN UP 10 speakers for Union Chapel’s Sunday sermons this summer

16TH YEAR GET CRACKIN’. The Grace Episcopal Church’s summer lobster roll program won Best Lobster Roll for the 16th year in a row in the annual Martha’s Vineyard magazine Best of the Vineyard contest.

7 authors for the Martha’s Vineyard Author Series

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DOUGHNUTS

speakers for the MV Hebrew Center’s Summer Institute

DECISIONS, DECISIONS. You made it to the front of the line at Back Door Donuts in Oak Bluffs – now you’ve got to choose between 11 different doughnuts!

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30 TOPPINGS

photographers for Featherstone’s Photographers Salon

PILE IT ON! Over at Rosie’s Frozen Yogurt in Oak Bluffs, folks can choose from 8 different flavors and over 30 toppings.

THE VINE · Page 25

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insta-island

Hands down, the most popular subject to photograph on the Vineyard is sunset – and sunrise if you’re an early riser like Liz Durkee (@dolandurkee). Scroll through #marthasvineyard on Instagram, and you’ll know. Of course, there’s a secret ingredient to an Island sunset – the water. In the photos here, Larry Glick (@larryglickphotos) shot Edgartown Harbor from Chappy, and Tim Johnson (@ timmjaws) captured the last light spreading across the Lake Tashmoo opening. But water is not required: the elusive quality of the sun dipping under the horizon of an up-Island stone wall makes Albert Fischer’s (@bertfisch) photo a quintessential Vineyard shot.

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THE VINE · Page 27

On an island of bounty,

NO ONE SHOULD GO HUNGRY. For those with resources, Martha’s Vineyard is a land of plenty.

But for many residents, every day is a struggle to put food on the table.

An average of 1259 Islanders rely on the Island Food Pantry each month, a number that has doubled in about two years.

From now through September, the Vineyard Gazette will donate 15 percent of all new subscriptions* it receives to the Island Food Pantry. *Includes both new print and Friend of the Gazette subscriptions; sorry, renewals not included.

Help us eliminate food insecurity on Martha’s Vineyard.

SUBSCRIBE TODAY! vineyardgazettestore.com