Elisha R. Smith, an Oak Bluffs farmer for more than three-quarters of a century and for more than two decades the president of the Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society, died last Friday at his home in Vineyard Haven at the age of 90. It was thanks to his determination, hard bargaining and skill at dealing with people that, in 1992, the society acquired the land that is the site of today’s Agricultural Hall. The acquisition of that West Tisbury Panhandle property where the annual fair is held was one of the proudest moments of his life, Elisha Smith said.

The Grey Barn and Farm of Chilmark began as an idea in Dubai, the ostensible city of the future in the United Arab Emirates. And now owners Eric and Molly Glasgow are edging toward the day when they will have created a viable dairy farm on the former Rainbow Farm property in Chilmark that they purchased from David Douglas earlier this summer.

With the first snowfall of winter, Nip 'n' Tuck Farm in
West Tisbury is quiet outside. The farm equipment out in the field is
covered, and a tractor sits decorated in dual shades of rust and fresh
snow. The landscape is motionless.

The fields are still fallow, the silos completely gone to ruin. Operating licenses and permits have long since expired, and nearly a year after the Edgartown Conservation Commission announced it had agreed in principal to lease Katama Farm to entrepreneur David Moore there still is no lease.

And no farming operation at the 190-acre, town-owned farm on the vast, windswept Katama Plains which for years supported an active dairy operation.