Writing about food, which I’ve done now for just a few months shy of a decade, was never something I set out to do. And, especially at the beginning of my career, it was anything but trendy or glitzy. It was dirty, gritty, and messy – at times quite literally.
It was after spending the holidays back home on the Island that I made the decision to tackle Dry January: an aptly-named, specialty cleanse in which one gives up booze for 31 days at the start of the new year.
Vineyard roots run strong and deep and I never have imagined calling anywhere else on earth home. I grew up on the Island, but plenty of people grow up plenty of places. They move, they call other cities, other towns their own. What has always rooted me to Martha’s Vineyard is what roots so many people here — a community with a heart much larger than the Island’s 100 square miles would suggest.
Health and human service agencies on the Vineyard are already feeling the effects of severe state budget cuts made last week by Gov. Deval Patrick and are bracing for more in the months ahead.
State funding to Family Planning of Martha’s Vineyard and Martha’s Vineyard Community Services was slashed in the cuts, while directors at the Island Health Care Rural Clinic in Edgartown and the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital were busy this week preparing for spending and hiring freezes.
Although today’s is the last Farm and Field column for the year, the farming season is far from over. Fall brings fields full of squash and pumpkins, late summer corn, green and red tomatoes. Farm stands will stay open on through October and November. Come December, many Island farms will shut down and farmers will turn their attention to planning for the spring, summer and early fall crops.
With bacteria levels in Sengekontacket Pond lower than anticipated this summer, Edgartown shellfish constable Paul Bagnall is advocating that parts of the pond reopen to shellfishing as soon as next summer.
“I am pushing for the reopening of certain areas of the pond,” Mr. Bagnall told the Friends of Sengekontacket at their annual meeting this week. “And I don’t anticipate opposition.”
