My Cape and Islands tour with my new film, Peter and John, has given me plenty to think about — and an abundance of stories to share. I woke up on a recent morning at the Mermaid Farm home of Caitlin Jones and Allen Healy. Their Chilmark farm appears to have three roosters on duty. The ringleader knows when it’s time to wrangle Allen for 4:30 a.m. morning chores. The other two roosters chime in at what appear to be one-hour intervals.  

I landed at the Mermaid Farm though an extraordinary stroke of luck. I had just shipped my film master to Nantucket for a screening there when I received the bad news that my Vineyard housing had fallen through and I would not get the wait-list ticket I had counted on to get my car back to the mainland after my Vineyard shows. I was stumped. And I desperately needed my car or an ingenious alternate plan to get my 200 pounds of speakers, stands, mixers, cable and projector to and from my four scheduled screenings at the Harbor View Hotel in Edgartown.

Within minutes of suffering this setback, I emailed three people whom I thought just might consider my housing plight. I thought each request was a long shot but, to my pleasant surprise, all three prospects responded positively — and during one of the busiest weekends of the summer. And without being asked, Caitlin offered her greenish early 1990’s Toyota farm wagon, complete with stick shift and hay on the floorboards.  

The hay in the Mermaid Farm utility car reminded me of an Arlo Guthrie concert I produced in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom during the early 1980s. Arlo arrived for his afternoon sound check in a newish steel-gray-and-black Cadillac Eldorado. As he slid into a parking space alongside the venue, I couldn’t help but notice thick tufts of hay sticking out through the sleek car’s trunk.  

“Looks like you’re putting some pretty hard miles on the old Eldorado,” I said to Guthrie.

“Well, I’ve got animals at my place in western Massachusetts so we cut hay to keep ‘em going,” he said. “I like having the critters around. Trouble is, I’ve always wanted to drive a Cadillac, too. And the Caddy cost enough that I didn’t really have cash left over for a more practical vehicle.”

I first discovered Mermaid Farm during my monthlong Chilmark stay in October 2011 as I was preparing to produce my film, Northern Borders. On the Vineyard, I wrote every morning and night, and took a break around 3 p.m. each day for an ocean swim and bike ride out past the Tea Lane. Headed back around dusk to my rented home, I’d stop by the Mermaid Farm stand and buy a quart of their indescribably fine and creamy whole milk yogurt. It was my primary food staple for the whole month.

One fall afternoon a year later, I met Caitlin, out hiking in the nearby woods with her son, Everett. I was staked out in Menemsha then, writing the script for Peter and John, the film I’m touring now. Meeting Caitlin and her son, I was star struck.  

“You make the Mermaid Farm yogurt?” I said. “It’s the best I’ve ever had.”

“There’s some pretty good yogurt I found in eastern Pennsylvania,” Caitlin said, acknowledging that her own brand was up there with the best.

We struck up a conversation and I later sent her a couple of my DVDs, including Windy Acres, a comedy series I made for public television, about a struggling Vermont dairy farm that takes in “agricultural tourists” to help make ends meet. Now here I was, an agricultural tourist on Caitlin and Allen’s farm.  

Caitlin’s 10-year old son, Kent, sat in the back seat when she picked me up at 10:30 p.m., after my first night of Harbor View screenings. Within minutes, Kent volunteered his favorite Windy Acres comedy scenes and announced that he planned to take over the family farm when it was time. The next morning, after his parents had headed off and before he tackled his own chores, he made me blueberry pancakes to die for — with real syrup.

My grass-roots barnstorming tours sometimes give me the feeling that I’m on a vaudeville circuit, like the performers and novelty acts that crisscrossed New England during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Though all I offer is an extended conversation and a few anecdotes about making my movies and being on the road. Lacking the skills I associate with the old vaudevillians, like the ability to read peoples’ minds or flawlessly whistle bird calls, I feel pretty lucky to follow in their tradition.

Jay Craven will screen his new film Peter and John at 7:30 p.m., Monday and Tuesday, August 17 and 18 at the Katherine Cornell Theatre in Vineyard Haven, and at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, August 19 at the West Tisbury Grange Hall. The movie was previously screened this summer at the Martha’s Vineyard Film Center. Visit kingdomcounty.org.