A blender is a must when cooking for children. Violet’s friend, Cesca Robinson, joined us for supper recently. I served a pork, potato, and leek dish. Both girls loved it but each painstakingly picked out the leeks and left them in a tidy pile at the edge of the plate. I always puree vegetables I know Violet dislikes into sauces and soups. It obviously is a texture thing as opposed to taste. This past summer I blended several containers of zucchini, garlic, and onions. No one is the wiser when they are slipped into a spaghetti sauce.

This is the season not of the witch but the razorbill. They have been seen from every side of the Vineyard and Chappaquiddick. Unlike their cousins the puffins, dovekies, murres, guillemots, murrelets and auklets that remain offshore except to breed, the razorbills will come into harbors, bays and estuaries that are less salty than the ocean to feed. Razorbills will also enjoy a bit of R& R on a breakwater in the sun. The waters around the Vineyard are full of sand lances (sand eels) and still even mackerel, and where there are fish there are razorbills.

Don't squash my enthusiasm.

Why shouldn’t I be excited about the last little bit of local produce in my pantry? Along with some remaining homegrown potatoes, garlic, frozen garden tomatoes and backyard-raised chickens, I am lucky to have a few Island-grown butternut squashes left.

Tonight’s Shabbat Service at the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center will honor the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his friend and colleague Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel.

Asked in an interview about five years ago to name his favorite spot in Chilmark, my grandfather almost instantly responded: “The Keith Farm, Middle Road.” He then recalled his process of clearing that land, lamenting that he never had the right tools and remembering how he worked late into the evenings with his tractor clearing stone and trees. He always made sure you knew he barely had enough to make it work, though as he told me the stories I could see in his eyes his conviction that all greatness is achieved with some degree of hardship.

Willy Mason on drums? I have never seen that before. The headliner of Vineyard musicians who fills houses across our nation and in Europe played back-up all night. But Willy was appropriately humble in this company — a gathering of the best of the best of Island musicians. Rob Myers, aka Jellybone Rivers had invited Nina Violet (viola), Brad Tucker (standup bass), Marciana Jones (ukelele), Michelle Jones (electric guitar), Adam Lipsky (piano), Charlie Esposito (clarinet), Slim Bob Berosh (electric guitar) and Elisha Wiesner (electric guitar).

This is what 118 people saw on Sunday afternoon’s otter walk sponsored by the Vineyard Conservation Society: three ducks, five dogs on leashes, a rusted tractor wheel, and four folding chairs with broken seats.

This is what they did not see: otters. But they saw plenty of evidence that otters are alive and well on the Island.

Grace is Hot Meal on Cold Night

Winter gets a bad rap for a number of reasons. Cold, dark, possibly lonely as the Island empties out and more stores say goodbye until spring. But there is always one wonderful aspect of the off-season, as reliable as the spring peepers, the community suppers.

West Tisbury catboat sailor Jim O’Connor has come out with his fourth annual calendar. Each month gets a photograph. Mr. O’Connor is a professional caterer and runs ChefWorks. When he is not cooking up meals in the summer he and his wife Kim, an educator at the Oak Bluffs School, and their black labrador retriever Marshall are out sailing in their 22-foot catboat Glimmer. They like to cruise about Southeastern Massachusetts waters with the purpose of having a good time and taking pictures for the next calendar.

ACE MV Registration

Registration is now open for the Adult and Community Education (ACE MV) winter and spring classes.

Course offerings include, well, just about anything you can think of including arts, music, dance, business, computers, education, parenting, cooking, health, history, languages, writing, the list goes on and on. Many classes earn college credits too through Cape Cod Community College and Fitchburg State, all taught on Island