A farmer’s entire success depends on many factors, but always starts with one thing: our dirt. The soil on the Island can vary dramatically. Many up-Island farmers struggle with heavy clay...

This is the time of year that the butterfly weed, an orange bloom in the milkweed family, really takes off on Chappy. It seems to be a particularly good year for it. The edges of our field at Wasque...

Farmers are eternal optimists. In the quiet months of winter, we think to ourselves, “This will be the year.” We reflect back to the summer months, when our fields were brimming with...

My 18-month-old daughter recently pointed at a freshly harvested green bundle sitting on our kitchen counter and correctly identified it as bok choy. She knows the difference between a daffodil and a...

My family tried our best to make it to the end of our road to cheer on the frontrunners of the Chappy Point to Point five mile road race this past Sunday. But then the new chicks escaped in the...

Some farmers may disagree, but I find working in a warm summer rain is one of the greatest pleasures of farming. The key to enjoying it is a solid set of rain gear: rubber boots, waterproof bib...

It is with great pleasure that I am taking on the revived Farm and Field column this summer. I live and farm on Chappaquiddick, that mysterious little island separated from the Vineyard by a 527-...

A pickup truck on the Chappy ferry last night captured the essence of this time of year. The bed was overflowing with bikes, beach chairs, fishing pole and bags of various shapes and sizes, all tied...

All ages gathered at the community center on Sunday night to celebrate Sidney Morris’s seventieth birthday. Sidney and his wife Margaret moved to Chappaquiddick in the seventies, raised their...

The sun made a rare and much-welcomed appearance on Chappy this weekend. Like most of New England, we have had an unusually wet and cool spring, with the majority of days forecast for rain or clouds...