Martha's Vineyard Green Guide

marthasvineyard. .com

Green Guide MV 2023-2024 YO U R G U I D E TO E C O - F R I E N D LY M V

Green Guide M A R T H A’ S V I N E YA R D

S I M P L E / S M A R T / S U S TA I N A B L E

2023-2024

YOUR GUIDE TO ECO-FRIENDLY MV ROOMS FOR CHANGE · PROTECT SHOREBIRDS · WHAT'S A B CORP? HOW TO COMPOST/RECYCLE/EAT LOCAL · GREEN MV BUSINESSES SPONSORED BY

MARTHA'S VINEYARD REAL ESTATE WITH DEEP ROOTS IN THE COMMUNITY

We have four clients: you, your neighborhood, the island, the planet

ARCHITECTURE . ENGINEERING. BUILDING. INTERIORS. SOL AR. S O U T H M O U N TA I N . C O M

BANKING AS A FORCE FOR GOOD.

Martha’s Vineyard Bank is a Certified B Corporation™

As the first B Corporation Certified bank in Massachusetts, we are excited to be a pioneer for banking as a force for positive change. With B Corp Certification, we are extending our commitment to people and community.

Join us today.

We empower our CUSTOMERS to achieve their financial dreams We reward our EMPLOYEES and encourage their growth and wellbeing We strengthen our COMMUNITIES with giving that makes an impact We provide transparency in GOVERNANCE that acknowledges all stakeholders We protect our ENVIRONMENT and work to create a more sustainable future

mvbank.com Member FDIC Member DIF

marthasvineyard.

.com

1

BDL • OUR TEAM

Green Guide generating buzz since 1999

Raw Honey Professionally Managed Beehives Swarm Removal At the West Tisbury Farmers Market

islandbeecompanymv

508-693-6288 · islandbeecompanymv.com

President Victoria Riskin CEO Raymond Pearce Editor Jamie Kageleiry, editor@bluedotliving.com Senior Writer Leslie Garrett Associate Editor Lucas Thors Copyeditor Laura Roosevelt Creative Director Tara Kenny Design/Production Whitney Multari Digital Projects Manager Kelsey Perrett Social Media/Digital Projects Julia Cooper Contributing Editors Mollie Doyle, Catherine Walthers Ad Sales Josh Katz, adsales@bluedotliiving.com Bluedot and Bluedot Living logos and wordmarks are trademarks of Bluedot, Inc. Copyright © 2023. All rights reserved.

Bluedot Living: At Home on Earth is printed on FSC paper, using soy-based ink, in the U.S. Bluedot Living magazine is published quarterly and is available at newsstands, select retail locations, inns, hotels, and bookstores, free of charge. Please write us if you’d like to stock Bluedot Living at your business.

Editor@bluedotliving.com Sign up for the Martha’s Vineyard Bluedot Living newsletter here, along with any of our others: the BuyBetter Marketplace, our national ‘Hub” newsletter, and our soon-to-be-launched Bluedot Kitchen newsletter: marthasvineyard.bluedotliving.com/ sign-up-for-our-newsletters/ Subscribe! Get Bluedot Living Martha’s Vineyard and our upcoming Bluedot GreenGuide mailed to your address.

It’s $24.95 a year for all four issues plus our Green Guide, and as a bonus, we’ll email you a collection of Bluedot Kitchen recipes. Subscribe at bit.ly/MVBluedotSubs Read stories from this magazine and more at marthasvineyard.bluedotliving.com Find Bluedot Living on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube @bluedotliving

2

Bluedot GreenGuide 2 0 2 3 - 2 0 2 4

TISBURY GREAT POND PAINTING BY LANNY MCDOWELL

EDITOR'S LETTER

scientist, the top nine things you can do to live more sustainably, and guides on how and where to recycle and compost, banish plastic from your pantry, and maintain radical hope. We hope you’ll hang on to this guide and turn to it often.

If you like having this practical guide, you'll love our biweekly Bluedot Martha's Vineyard newsletter, where we share Climate Quick Tips, Dear Dot advice, ur founder, Victoria Riskin, could help you live more lightly on our Earth-friendly recipes, and stories about told me that several years ago Island and our planet.

Islanders doing right by the planet. Sign up she started to notice that when We were thrilled when Tea Lane here: bit.ly/MV-NEWSLETTER people discussed climate issues, Associates stepped up to sponsor this You can also sign up there for our Daily they inevitably ended with: I just want to publication. They have supported us since Dot newsletter. know what I can do every day, in my own our first issue of Bluedot Living more than We’ll be publishing a Green Guide home. two years ago, and made this resource guide annually, and welcome suggestions on She launched Bluedot Living to do a reality. Thank you, Tea Lane Associates! what we should include in next year’s just this: inspire people to make changes Alongside tips and advice, you’ll edition. Please write me at editor@ in their kitchens, their gardens, their find Field Notes from many of our bluedotliving.com. communities, by sharing stories of people Island environmental and conservation around them doing just that. organizations that will help you figure Thanks, as always, for your company While we love sharing stories, we also out what fish to eat, what to plant, how to on this journey to creating a greener life on thought you might like a resource guide prepare your rental property for a greener this small blue dot we call home. that pulled together all the “How-to’s” that experience for tenants, how to be a citizen —Jamie Kageleiry

Dear Readers,

O

Garden Angels Bring beauty to your property

Native plant specialists and environmentally focused organic garden practices.

Design • Installation • Maintenance (508) 645-9306 www.vineyardgardenangels.com marthasvineyard.

.com

3

A SHARING OF MEANS • FEATURE

CONTENTS RESOURCES

5 Advertiser Index 6 The Keep-This Handbook:

44 Vineyard Conservation Society’s Advice for Eco-Landlords 47 Runar Finn and Odin Robinson on How to Live More Sustainably

FOOD 10 A Guide to MVC’s Climate Action Plan AND RECIPES

Recycle, compost, buy second-hand, borrow things, find seeds, volunteer, donate food, and write your reps.

14 What’s a B Corp?

South Mountain Catches Us Up

42 B Corp Bank: MV Bank Is the First in the State

ADVICE 13 Kate Warner’s Nine-Year Path to a Lighter Footprint 16 Food Waste 17 Pantry Rules 18 Dear Dot: Do Laundry Strips Work?

19 Room for Change:

Shrink Your Closet, Grow Your Joy Flying: What You Can Do

28 Invasive Species:

What You Can Do About Them

46 Anne Mazar’s Guide to Caring For Our Great Ponds

FIELD NOTES 8 IGI and Island Climate Action Network:

Nine Things You Can Do Right Now

32 Guide to Fish in Season 32 Eat Local: Sea Scallops 34 Fluke Fish Tacos 35 Pan Seared Tautog 36 Easy Kelp Crab Cakes 36 Cottage City Kelp Clam Chowder 37 Kelp Lemon Butter for Fish;

Kelp Ranch Dressing 39 Cast Iron Skillets Are the Sustainable

Tool of Choice Recipe: Skillet Irish Soda Bread 40 Island Chefs’ Eco-Advice on Kitchen Tools

IN A WORD 9 Psychogeology 12 Micromobility 21 Rewild 48 Radical Hope

CLIMATE QUICK TIPS 11 Clean Your Fridge Coils 15 Exorcise Phantom Power

Seek a Green Search Engine

21 Safer Sunscreen

Keeping Ticks Off Your Lawn

20 The MV Atlas of Life:

26 Bees Can’t See Red Leave Leaves Alone!

22 BiodiversityWorks:

40 More Bulgur, Less Burger A Cheesy Tip for Cutting Food Waste

24 Felix Neck:

43 Shop Local Cuppa Clear Conscience

How to Be a Citizen Scientist

How to Identify (and Care for) Coastal Birds

A Few of the Staff’s Favorite Trails

26 Polly Hill Arboretum:

Local Plants You Can Add to Your Yard

30 MV Shellfish Group: Bivalvify!

31 MV Fishermen’s Preservation Trust:

Island Fish for Island Families, and Other Resources 4

Bluedot GreenGuide 2 0 2 3 - 2 0 2 4

45 Re-use Your Lemon Peels Re-use Your Pasta Water

47 Be Gone, Plastic Bags

Secondhand Shopping

COVER PHOTO: JEREMY DRIESEN THIS PAGE: PHOTO COURTESY BIODIVERSITYWORKS

ADVERTISER DIRECTORY • BDL

ADVE RTISER DIRECTORY SPONSORING PARTNER

1(833) MV SOLAR (687-6527)

TEA LANE ASSOCIATES ..........................Back Cover

Serving the Community of Martha’s Vineyard

Tealaneassociates.com

SOUTH MOUNTAIN COMPANY................................................. Inside Front Cover

southmountain.com

MARTHA’S VINEYARD BANK .........................................1 Mvbank.com

ISLAND BEE COMPANY....................................................... 2 Islandbeecompanymv.com MV ATLAS OF LIFE.................................................................... 2

Solar System Installation New & Retrofit Battery Storage Canopies & Pergolas Commercial & Residential

Mval.biodiversityworksmv.org

GARDEN ANGELS ...................................................................... 3 Vineyardgardenangels.com

HARVEST SUN SOLAR ......................................................... 5 Harvestsunsolar.com

GREEN OFFICE ............................................................................. 5 Greenofficemv.com

FULLER’S ENERGY.....................................................................9 Fullersenergy.com

BLUEDOT INSTITUTE .......................................................... 12 Bluedot-institute.org

ILLUSTRATION BY KEVIN MCGRATH

marthasvineyard.

.com

5

‘KEEP-THIS’ SIMPLE, SMART, SUSTAINABLE HANDBOOK

The ‘KEEP-THIS’ Simple, Smart, Sustainable Handbook Recycle, compost, volunteer, write your rep, buy secondhand.

See this online at bit.ly/MV-HANDBOOK. See our How to Get Rid of Anything Guide at: bit.ly/GET-RID

COMMUNITY RESOURCES LIBRARY OF THINGS

At the West Tisbury Library, patrons can check out games, activities, audiovisual equipment, musical instruments, tools, and much more. Visit bit.ly/WTLIB-THINGS for a full list of items. Look for updates on other Island library "things."

MV COMMUNITY SEED LIBRARY

A collaborative project of the West Tisbury Library, Island Grown Schools, Polly Hill Arboretum, Whippoorwill Farm, and local home gardeners, the Seed Library brings the knowledge of how to save seeds back to our island community while creating a central space where seeds can be freely shared. For more info on events, follow the @mvseedlibrary Facebook page.

VOLUNTEERING

POLLY HILL ARBORETUM grounds volunteers Starting in June, volunteers are welcome to work with staff at the 70-acre West Tisbury public garden on activities like planting, pruning, weeding, and mulching. Contact Ian Jochems for more information at ian@pollyhillarboretum.org.

GLEAN WITH ISLAND GROWN INITIATIVE Island Grown Initiative works to build a regenerative and equitable food system on Martha’s Vineyard.

Volunteers can help IGI harvest fresh local produce for Islanders in need. No experience needed.

Gleaning takes about two hours and volunteers may keep a share of the harvest for themselves.

To sign up, go to igimvg.org/volunteer.php.

Great Pond Foundation THE GREAT POND FOUNDATION focuses on enhancing the health of the Edgartown Great Pond.

Volunteers are encouraged to assist with their Ecosystem Monitoring Program and educational 6

Bluedot GreenGuide 2 0 2 3 - 2 0 2 4

outreach events, aiding in water quality and biodiversity data collection, conducting surveys of pond species, helping staff with demonstrations of scientific concepts, and assisting with science communication.

For updates on volunteer opportunities, email science@greatpondfoundation.org.

COMMUNITY GREENHOUSE OF MARTHA’S VINEYARD People come to the Community Greenhouse of MV in Oak Bluffs to gather and grow food and plants and learn together. There are a range of yearround volunteer opportunities for all mobilities and levels of expertise. Volunteers can work inside and outside to help with weeding, pruning, seeding, planting, and beautifying plants; members can also pick fresh produce. For updated information, visit marthasvineyardgreenhouse.org/

SECOND-HAND STORES ACT TWO SECOND HAND STORE 66 Main St., Vineyard Haven; acttwosecondhandstore.org

CHICKEN ALLEY THRIFT SHOP 38 Lagoon Pond Rd., Vineyard Haven; chickenalley.org

ISLAND VINTAGE & DESIGNER APPAREL 30 Main St. (entrance on Spring) Vineyard Haven

shopislandvintage.com

SECOND TREASURES MV 8 Uncas Ave., Oak Bluffs

secondtreasuresmv.com

THE 'DUMPTIQUE'

West Tisbury Transfer Station

Want something else included?

Email us at editor@bluedotliving.com

‘KEEP-THIS’ SIMPLE, SMART, SUSTAINABLE HANDBOOK

RECYCLING All six towns have the same rules for what can and can’t be recycled.

WHAT YOU CAN RECYCLE RULES: Empty, clean, wash; no caps or lids • Metal cans • Plastic containers (bottles, jars, jugs, and tubs) • Glass containers (bottles and jars; NO ceramics OR window panes) • Paper and paperboard, corrugated cardboard (empty and flatten, remove packing tape) Includes office paper, junk mail, newspapers, magazines, paperboard boxes; NO shredded paper, pizza boxes, waxed boxes, or books with bindings)

WHAT YOU CAN’T RECYCLE • Recyclables in a garbage bag • Garbage • Plastic bags or plastic wrap • Food or liquid • Styrofoam items or packaging materials • Clothing or linens • Tanglers (hoses, wires, chains, electronics)

TRANSFER STATIONS

Aquinnah, Chilmark, Edgartown, West Tisbury Dual sorting system: • Cardboard and paper go together • Plastic containers, tin cans, aluminum cans/glass go together Oak Bluffs and Tisbury Dual sorting system: • Cardboard, newspaper and paper go together • Everything else single stream

Oak Bluffs Bruno’s Drop-off Dual sorting system • Separate cardboard • Everything else single stream Bruno’s and ABC’s Pick-up Recycling Rules • Single bin, don’t need to separate materials

COMPOSTING

FOOD DONATIONS Combat food insecurity and food waste by ensuring that any unwanted non-perishable food is donated rather than tossed. Visit their sites or call for details and hours.

ISLAND FOOD PANTRY

See IGI's wishlist of items or drop off at 137 Vineyard Ave., Oak Bluffs.

Compost buckets available for free at IGI’s offices in West Tisbury or at town transfer stations. To request a bucket, email office@igimv.org or call 508-687-9062.

Drop-off locations (currently free or for small fee) • Transfer stations in all towns • Chappy ferry dock • IGI’s farm • Eggshells and coffee grounds to North Tabor and Wise Owl Farms

ACCEPTED ITEMS • All meat and fish (including bones, lobster shells, and egg shells) • All dairy • Grains, nuts, seeds, flour products • Fruits and vegetables • Tea bags (staples removed) • Coffee grounds and coffee filters • All flowers • Paper napkins and paper towels (unless they were used with toxic products that won’t break down under high heat)

UNACCEPTABLE ITEMS • Large amounts of oyster, clam, littleneck, mussel shells — Contact the M.V. Shellfish Group: mvshellfishgroup.org)

GOOD SHEPHERD PARISH FOOD PANTRY 55 School St, Oak Bluffs.

EDGARTOWN COUNCIL ON AGING FOOD PANTRY 10 Daggett Ave, Edgartown.

REPRESENTATIVES

Got something to say about pending legislation? Call your elected officials: State Governor Governor Maura Healey: 617-725-4005; Twitter: @MassGovernor State Senator Julian Andre Cyr: 617-722-1570; Julian.Cyr@masenate.gov; Twitter: @JulianCyr; State Representative Dylan A. Fernandes: 617-722-2013; dylan.fernandes@mahouse.gov; Twitter: @RepDylan.

Federal Senator Ed Markey: 617-565-8519; Twitter: @EdMarkeySenator Elizabeth Warren: 617-565-3170; Twitter: @SenWarren Representative William R. Keating: 508-771-6868; Twitter: USRepKeating

EDGARTOWN GREAT POND, PHOTO BY SAM MOORE

marthasvineyard.

.com

7

IGI · FIELD NOTE

FIELDNote

To: Bluedot Living From: From the folks at IGI and the Island Climate Action Network Subject: Climate Change — The Top Nine Things You Can Do to Help.

1

Compost! If you don't compost at home, bring your food scraps (including meat, bones, dairy, lobster shells, any food scraps) to your local town transfer station.

Bruno's will pick it up and bring it to the Island Grown Farm to be turned into compost, or you can bring it to the IGI farm yourself at 80 Stoney Hill Road, down the drive from Island Alpaca. More information can be found on the IGI website here: igimv.org

2

Support local farmers by buying local food. Head to the West Tisbury Farmers Market on Wednesday and Saturday mornings, or visit one of the Island's many farm stanads.

Check out the Island Farm Map here: marthasvineyardagriculturalsociety.org/ local-farms

3

Grow food at home. This can be in a sunny window, in pots on a porch, in a vegetable

garden, or via fruit trees in your yard.

See regenerative backyard gardening resources on the IGI website here: igimv.org/backyard-growers

4

Reduce your lawn footprint, and plant edibles and/or native plants instead.

This can reduce usage of water, fertilizers, and fossil fuels required for mowing. Check out Biodiversity Works' Natural Neighbors program (biodiversityworksmv.org/programsprojects/natural-neighbors/), and/or the lawn footprint reduction tips from Garden Wisdom's Roxanne Kapitan on the IGI website, here: igimv.org/ backyard-growers

5 6

Get a free home energy audit through Cape Light Compact to find ways to save money and energy in your home. (capelightcompact.org) Reach out to an energy coach at Vineyard Power (Vineyardpower.com) if you need (free!) advice on improving energy efficiency in your home, getting a heat pump, buying or leasing an electric vehicle, installing solar panels, and more.

7 8 9

Get an energy efficient heat pump for heating and cooling!

Check out rebates, incentives, and loans available through the MassSave program and Cape Light Compact.

Adjust your thermostat (up in the summer and down in the winter) to use as little energy as possible for heating and cooling your home, especially if you're going to be away from home for a period of time.

Become a member of Island Eats (islandeatsmv.com) to access reusable stainless steel takeout containers at many local restaurants, rather than using single-use packaging.

PHOTO COURTESY IGI

IN A WORD

I

in a word

Richard Powers, author of Bewilderment and The Overstory, described his first foray into the Smoky Mountains to Ezra Klein in a separate interview.

Psycho [sahy-koh ] geology [jee-ol-uh-jee] The experience was so transformative for Powers that he found himself still thinking about it a year later. “If you’re still preoccupied with a place and how you felt in that place after such a long period of time after only Robinson chose to use a four-day exposure,” the term “geology” and refers Powers said, “that’s got "THE WALK HOME" BY JACK YUEN specifically to mountains. to tell you something.”

The Sierra mountains (the focus of his most recent book, The There is a particularity to psychogeology, according to High Sierra, a Love Story) make him feel differently than Swiss Kim Stanley Robinson: “I talk about psychogeology as the mountains, he says, inviting us, too, to notice how different trying to understand why, for instance, the Sierras feel so places make us feel. different than the Swiss Alps or the trans-Antarctics or “I think the mountains are a space where you are taken the Himalayas.” It is the character of these places, he posoutside of your ordinary urban mind and are thinking a little its to Klein, that coalesce into a particular feeling. … You deeper — or, no, that might not be the right way to put it,” he can try to explain it, but it’s more of a gestalt. And that’s said during an interview on The Ezra Klein Show. “Things are psychogeology.” coming together in your head in a different way.”

–Leslie Garrett cannot offer you a dictionary definition of psychogeology because the word is not in the dictionary. What I can do is tell you that the author who coined the term, Kim Stanley Robinson, wanted a word to define how we are shaped by the places where we live or have spent time. Psycho, as a prefix, refers to relating to the mind or the soul. Geology, broadly, means the substance of the earth.

Psychogeology

Support Bluedot!

We love bringing you stories about Islanders addressing climate change.

Generous contributions from readers such as you helps us do this.

Make a one-time, monthly, or annual contribution here.

Power your home with clean energy around the clock with solar and batteries.

And we’ll email you a downloadable collection of Bluedot Kitchen Recipes

Solar, plus smart, safe and long-lasting battery technology. www.fullers.energy

508.696.3006 info@fullersenergy.com

Your Renewable Energy Solution marthasvineyard.

.com

9

CLIMATE ACTION PLAN••FEATURE Q&A A SHARING OF MEANS

THE MARTHA’S VINEYARD

Climate Action Plan A Q&A with the team behind the MVC’s response to climate change.

By Sam Moore This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Could you briefly introduce yourselves?

We have so many people who work outside, who recreate outside.

Liz Durkee: I’m the Climate Change

Durkee: Heat is going to affect our hu-

Planner at the Martha’s Vineyard Commission.

Meghan Gombos: I am an independent consultant. I’ve been working in marine resource management and climate change adaptation for 20-plus years.

Cheryl Doble: My background is

in landscape architecture and planning.

Like Liz and Meghan, I was also on those early committees that started up the Climate Task Force and the Climate Resilience group.

Before we get to the action plan, we should ask: how will climate change affect Martha’s Vineyard?

Durkee: Because we’re an Island, sea level rise, stronger storms, and all the coastal issues are extremely important for us to address. Climate change is going to impact every aspect of our lives: our land and water, our human health, our economy, our emergency preparedness. We need to become more energy resilient and decrease our greenhouse gas emissions. It’s all interrelated, and we need to look at the whole big picture if we’re going to address these issues in a smart way.

Gombos: In addition to increased storms and sea level rise, sea surface temperature increases and ocean acidification are going to have huge impacts to our marine environment. Our marine ecosystems, our fisheries, shell fisheries — things that are really important to the Island community in both livelihoods and quality of life. And also just the heat of increased temperatures.

10

Bluedot GreenGuide 2 0 2 3 - 2 0 2 4

man health; it’s going to increase respiratory issues and vector-borne diseases, and mental health issues — like if we have a major hurricane and people are displaced.

We’ll have increased rain, and drought. It goes both ways. So, it’s not like you can handle one thing first, and then handle another. There’s a relationship here that you have to understand. We have to look forward in a way that addresses that. We have to come to grips with how we help each other in a moment of real extreme challenge, and then how we’re going to respond afterwards, because it’s very difficult to come up with ideas in the middle of a disaster.

So, what is the Climate Action Plan?

Gombos: The Climate Action Plan is basically looking at all of these issues and looking forward to 2040, and maybe even further. What are the impacts going to be to the Island? And what do we want to do to build? What do we want to do now to build our social, ecological, and environmental resilience to those changes?

Durkee: In 2022, we received funding

from the Mass Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness Program, so this is actually phase two of the Climate Action Plan.

Phase one was more foundational, doing background research and the adaptation reports that Meghan prepared.

What are the outcomes you are hoping for?

Gombos: We’re trying to achieve a

plan that has a 2040 outlook, and then has

more immediate and measurable actions that we want to take in the next ten years.

So, between now and 2030, what are we going to do? We can’t do everything. What are the biggest things to tackle? Where will we get the most bang for our buck?

We’ve put together six working groups around six thematic areas: food security, transportation and infrastructure, economic resilience, land use, natural resources and biodiversity, energy transformation, and public health and safety.

Durkee: Collaboration is a huge piece

of this, and the pond associations and the shellfish group, the insurance companies, the nonprofits, conservation groups, food security, and public health groups are all going to play a role in the implementation.

It’s going to be an Island-wide plan.

Doble: My hope from this process is that it builds our capacity to collaborate in new ways. I feel that we’re not starting dead in the water. We really have so much going on, which gives me hope that we can do so much more.

Gombos: Like Cheryl said, there’s

so much good work that’s happening.

It’s just getting folks to be able to pause and sit down and talk and share what’s happening and then say, ‘Hey, what if we could combine these efforts?’

Who else is involved?

Gombos: For each of the working groups, we have a liaison who’s a community leader in that space. They’ve got expertise, they’ve got the relationships, and we’ve asked them to help pull together a variety of people from around the community that can guide that component of the plan. We’ve asked the towns to provide a representative to each working group. And then we have businesses,

Q&A ••CLIMATE ACTION PLAN FEATURE A SHARING OF MEANS

NGOs, and students we’ve asked to participate.

Doble: When this process began, the Commission went to each of the towns and asked them to form a Climate Committee to work with them on this project. The Wampanoag also have representation, and the Brazilian community as well.

I’ve worked on projects here, is we begin by taking our first steps. And we make good investments now. And the second is that, this can be phased.

Gombos: I totally agree. Even though

house. One of the things that we need to start dialogue on, in terms of adaptation, is managed retreat from the shore. It’s a reality.

People don't really like change on this Island, and things are going to change. We’re working to change them in the best possible way we can, but there are going to be tough decisions to make in some areas.

we have a twenty-year horizon for this plan, the meat is really in the next five to ten years. With the infrastructure bill, there are opportunities there. I think there is What are some short- and going to be more funding available as we Can you give a few examples long-term goals for some of of actions that might come out go forward. The more we’re in a place to these projects? say, ‘This is what we want to do,’ the better of the plan? off we are.

Gombos: There are certain issues like Durkee: The residents of Aquinnah got moving roads away from the shoreline, Durkee: We’ve developed a Climate Ac- where it’s long term and it’s going to take together and organized a Community tion Fund, through the Martha’s Vineyard a while to do that. But then there are Emergency Response Team [a disasCommunity Foundation, that people can other things that people can do in their ter response initiative based on FEMA donate funding to [marthasvineyardcf. guidelines], and they had their emergency own backyard, like gardening or building org]. If we get a grant where the locals manager train residents in emergency rehabitat. Those are smaller actions where sponse, first aid, and things like that. It’s an have to match the grant funds, this fund you see progress immediately while we’re amazing program, and we really would like could help us to pay for that town’s porworking on the big clunkers that take a to see all the towns develop a CERT team. tion of the grant. while to happen.

On a policy note, another example is that we're really hoping the planning boards and Doble: That program is important because Durkee: Sometimes people don’t recit makes us a little bit more nimble than ognize that things are happening because all the towns will update their floodplain when you have to go through town govern- they’re moving slow. Yeah, it doesn’t look bylaws to address flooding. ment and county meetings to get allocation like anything’s happening, but it is happenGombos: Transportation and infrastruc- for grant funding. ing. I think that’s so important. Because ture. When we’re upgrading roads and it’s discouraging when you put time into a culverts, let’s do it in a way that’s thinking What is the difference between plan, and then you don’t see things happen. about what the climate projections are, so mitigation and adaptation on And with communities, with government, we are not setting ourselves up to have to Martha’s Vineyard? with the groups that we’re working with, redo something. this is all going to take time.

Durkee: It’s harder for people to grasp If we’re talking about the next the adaptation. Mitigation, yeah, you could To follow the Climate Action Plan, visit buy an electric car, put solar panels on your thevineyardway.org 20 years or so, what are the

resources that the Island has, and what does it need?

Durkee: As we have said, there are a lot

of organizations and individuals working on a lot of these issues now. On the other hand, it’s going to cost money to do all these things. We need to look at ways to come up with very large amounts of money.

There are other things to think about. Does the commission need more climate change staff ? Do the towns need to have a staff member who is focusing on climate issues for their towns? Are nonprofits going to need to add staff members if they’re going to be ramping up what they’re doing?

Doble: I’m not going to be around to see

the end of this plan happen. It’s a long-term process. One of the things I’m starting, as

marthasvineyard.

.com 11

IN A WORD

F

in a word

car-free, pollution-free metropolis.”

Colin Mckerracher, head of transport and automotive analysis at BloombergNEF recently put it this way: “the EV revolution … rides on mi·​cro·​mo·​bil·​i·​ty | \ mī-krō-mō-bi-lə-tē two wheels for now.”

In North America, however, large vehicles still dominate our streets — There’s a name for this mode of in 2020, pickup trucks made up five transport: micromobility. of the top ten bestselling vehicles in Horace Dediu, a tech analyst, the U.S. And yet, Dediu tells us that coined the term and, literally, wrote 80% of trips by car are less than two the book on it. Micromobility refers miles long. And the majority of those to any vehicle less than about 1100 vehicles hold just one passenger. pounds, usually electric. But on a Our infrastructure — our very Harvard Business Review (HBR) expensive infrastructure — is built to podcast, Dediu noted that he’s exaccommodate vehicles. Infrastrucpanded that “to define micromobiliture built for micromobility, Dediu ty as very efficient mobility in terms has said, is considerably cheaper.

COURTESY WIKIMEDIA COMMONS of the energy consumed.”

“All arguments being made against Dediu posits that micromobility is presence of what has come to be known as micromobility is that, ‘Well, we have the poised to transform our cities, a premicromobility, Tel Aviv intends to more infrastructure for automobility. We’re diction that’s already evident. Sales than double its bike paths to cover 350 going to carry on doing this.’ As everyone are booming in the EU and Asia and kilometers by 2025 in the 52-square-kilo- knows … you’re just pointing to the fact growing. According to Bloomberg, meter city. It’s part of Mayor Ron Huldai’s that it was done wrong.”

“To accommodate the now-ubiquitous ultimate dream — to eventually create a –Leslie Garrett or lots of us, talk of electric vehicles typically defaults to cars or SUVs. And yet, though there is undoubtedly an EV revolution at hand, it is being driven predominantly by smaller vehicles — e-bikes and scooters, for instance.

Micromobility

Meet Our Climate Heroes We’re proud of their work.

www.bluedot-institute.org/student-work/ We welcome new schools, teachers, and students. Learn more: Lucas@bluedotliving.com 12

Bluedot GreenGuide 2 0 2 3 - 2 0 2 4

ADVICE • KATE WARNER'S NINE-YEAR PLAN

KATE WARNER’S

N I N E -Y E A R P L A N What are we doing to reduce our energy consumption by 2030? If your answer is “Um …,” let Kate Warner be your guide.

PHOTOS BY SAM MOORE

GET THE ELECTRICITY YOU NEED FROM RENEWABLE RESOURCES Go solar, or visit capelightcompact. org/clcgreen to be sure you are using clean, sustainable energy to power your needs.

GO SOLAR AT YOUR HOME OR BUSINESS Learn the basics at this Island Climate Action Network link: bit.ly/ican-solar.

Contact David Smith at dbssolarconsulting@hotmail.com to learn about many Vineyard solar installers.

the rosemary lavender one from chagrinvalleysoap.com.

Get metal tiffins for your kid’s lunch. The Charter School has switched to these for all the food they serve.

CUT BACK ON FLYING

EXCHANGE THAT COMBUSTION ENGINE FOR AN ELECTRIC VEHICLE

Learn more at theworldcounts. com. When it comes to carbon dioxide emissions per passenger per distance, flying is second to none. Only do it when absolutely necessary.

Save yourself money on maintenance, and cut out a big user of fossil fuels. Go to normalnow.com or drivegreen.greenenergyconsumers.org to find out what’s available.

SWITCH OUT YOUR FOSSIL- FUELCONSUMING HEATING SYSTEM Go with a cold-climate air source heat pump, and lessen your operating costs. Go to masssave.com and bit.ly/go-clean to learn more.

Exchange your hot-water system for a hybrid electric water heater, enhancing summer dehumidification, and saving on your energy bills. bit. ly/go-clean

AVOID SITES LIKE AMAZON

CUT BACK ON PLASTICS

Use a water bottle. Make a pledge to not buy single-use beverages that are in plastic containers.

To reduce plastic in your pantry, check out Mollie Doyle’s story on page 17. Make your own yogurt, so as to not buy plastic containers of yogurt each week.

Try a shampoo bar. Warner loves

They encourage mindless consumption and a throwaway culture. Use our libraries, Dumptique, and Chicken Alley to find the things you need. Or ask friends if you can borrow an item, instead of buying one for yourself.

STOP INVESTING IN COMPANIES THAT ARE DAMAGING OUR PLANET Read about the companies you are investing in, and don't support any fossil fuel exploration, extraction, or combustion.

marthasvineyard.

.com 13

COURTESY SOUTH MOUNTAIN COMPANY

Building a More Responsible Island With South Mountain Company

f

S

One of two MV ‘B Corps’ using business as a force for good. outh Mountain Company is an Island integrated design, engineering, and building firm that has been dedicated to environmentally and socially responsible practices for decades. Bluedot Living heard from Deirdre Bohan, CEO and co-owner of South Mountain Co., about some of the organization’s core values, the process of becoming a B Corp, and Bohan’s hopes for the future of Martha’s Vineyard.

See the longer interview online at marthasvineyard.bluedotliving.com

Interview by Lucas Thors

Bluedot Living: How did you first hear about B Corp

certification?

Deirdre Bohan: B Corp actually approached us in 2012!

They were just starting out and looking for like-minded companies … our reputation preceded us! We wanted to support their movement as it's so closely aligned with our values, but honestly, we also kind of felt we were helping them by participating. That didn’t last long … Despite being the highestscoring company several times, we feel we get more value from the certification process telling us what we can do better than the accolades.

BDL: What did South Mountain have to do to meet the

performance thresholds to be certified as a B Corp? What requirements did South Mountain already meet before embarking on the certification process?

14

Bluedot GreenGuide 2 0 2 3 - 2 0 2 4

DB: B Corp uses a rigorous assessment tool, which you can try out for free. When we did the preliminary assessment, we found our ethos was aligned with B Corp’s, and our robust set of internal operating policies gave us a good foundation to start from. With those in hand, our next steps were to collect and organize a bunch of other company and project data to submit.

BDL: Are there other B Corps, like South Mountain in Massachusetts, that are doing similar work?

DB: There are currently 6,000 B Corps in 80 countries, 113 are in Massachusetts, and two on Martha’s Vineyard. (Our friends at MV Bank qualified a couple of months ago!)

BDL: Could you describe some of South Mountain's core values that align with those of a B Corp? How about some specific projects that illustrate those values?

Q&A • WHAT'S A B CORP

DB: The B Corp motto is “using business as a force for good.”

We’ve been trying to do that for almost fifty years. In the mid-90s, people started calling it “triple bottom line” business — meaning people, planet, and profit carry equal weight in decision-making.

These days, B Corp separates that triple-bottom-line impact into five categories, with some examples of how we meet the criteria (for the full set of examples see this story online at marthasvineyard.bluedotliving.com)

GOVERNANCE South Mountain is a democratically-controlled worker-owned cooperative. After five years, employees are eligible to buy in and become an owner. As owners, they share in both the decisionmaking and the profits.

ENVIRONMENT/CLIMATE CHANGE We… • Seek to make every building net-zero capable (meaning it can produce as much energy as it consumes) • Design with waste and carbon reduction in mind • Spec materials with social, environmental, and health impact in mind • Have a standalone solar division that’s transitioned nearly 600 Island buildings away from fossil fuels • Design permaculture into every project landscape WORKERS We strive to create an exemplary workplace dedicated to helping employees thrive both professionally and personally. We do this by providing: • Living wages • Professional development • 100 percent payment of all family members’ dental and health care deductibles • JEDI ( Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion) training CUSTOMERS • Integrated process • Connect them to the community

COMMUNITY We …

• Allocate 20 percent of each year’s net profits to philanthropy • Engage in pro-bono work • Design and build affordable housing • Advocate for Island issues that are important to us (MV Builders Association, Youth Workforce Development, MV Housing Bank), and compensate staff for board work BDL: Can you speak personally to some of the social challenges the Island faces? How is South Mountain working to address the community's needs now and in the future?

DB: Housing and climate change loom largest (see our environmental commitments above)

HOUSING

Over time, SMCo has designed and built 43 affordable yearround homes, including three pocket neighborhoods.

We have eight affordable housing opportunities in the pipeline right now — we’re building four units of workforce housing at IGI and developing four lots in West Tisbury.

One of our employees is on the Steering Committee of the Coalition to Create the MV Housing Bank (CCMVHB). We provide strategic support wherever possible (at both the local and state level)

DB: We’d love to see more Island B Corps BECOMING A B CORP WILL: • Communicate your values • Position you and your company as a leader • Attract talent (It is a big draw for job candidates and has tremendous value with the younger Millennial and Gen Z demographic) • Provide a new marketing lens • Incrementally improve your practices • Make you part of a movement!

marthasvineyard.

.com 15

AT HOME

FOOD WASTE • WHAT. ON. EARTH

What. On. Earth.

“What we’re eating is never anything more or less than the body of the world.”

– Michael Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals

360 $720,000 Cost to Vineyard towns to transport and dispose of wasted food in 2020:

T O N S

1

Approximate number of Vineyard turkeys:

NINETY FIVE percent of Americans eat turkey at Thanksgiving

2

1,000

4

3

40

40 cents of every dollar spent on food in 1975 that went back to the farm it came from 6

10.5%

U.S. households that were food-insecure in 2020

8

6,500 TONS OF FOOD ARE SHIPPED OFF-ISLAND AS GARBAGE EACH YEAR

10

Number of Americans at Thanksgiving who will eat the classic six-ingredient green bean casserole created 60 years ago by Dorcas Reilly in Campbell’s test kitchen: 20 5 million

¢14.6 300 percent

14.6 cents of every dollar spent on food in 2018 that goes back to the farm it came from 7

increase

IN VEGANISM OVER 15 YEARS9

%

APPROXIMATELY

40

OF FOOD EACH YEAR IN THE US THAT GOES UNEATEN

11

SOURCES: 1-2 ISLAND GROWN INITIATIVE, igimv.org/foodwaste; 3. REPUBLIC WORLD, bit.ly/turkeynumber; 4. VINEYARD GAZETTE, vineyardgazette.com/news/2018/11/21/turkeys; 5. SMITHSONIAN, bit.ly/casseroleinventor; 6-7 UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN CENTER FOR SUSTAINABLE SYSTEMS, bit.ly/foodsystemfacts; 8. USDA ECONOMIC RESEARCH SERVICE, bit.ly/foodsecuritystatisics; 9. VEGAN NEWS, bit.ly/newvegans; 10. ISLAND GROWN INITIATIVE, igimv.org/foodwaste. 11: NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL, bit.ly/40percentwaste.

16

Bluedot GreenGuide 2 0 2 3 - 2 0 2 4

ILLUSTRATION BY NICOLE JACKSON

OF FOOD PROCESSED ANNUALLY

BY THE COMPOSTER AT ISLAND GROWN INITIATIVE'S FARM

ADVICE • YOUR PANTRY

AT HOME

Pantry Rules

By Mollie Doyle

The rooms in our homes are ripe for change. The clothes in our closets, the products in our pantries, the bins in our basements. They might be made with less-than-planet-friendly materials, or come in packaging that will clog our landfills, and there just might be too, too, too much of everything. Where to start can feel overwhelming. Follow along as Mollie Doyle explores our shopping, living, and home habits, and leads us toward a healthier home — for both the people in it and the Earth it sits on.

T

hat is what all of this is about: habits. Maybe we buy a brand because our mothers did. Maybe we buy something because we like the box. I am guilty of buying stuff out of habit or curiosity — not necessarily because I need it or am going to use it, which leads me to the first of my six simple rules:

RULE NO. 1: BUY LESS According to the USDA, 40 percent of all food in the U.S. does not get eaten. Project Drawdown, one of the world’s leading sources for climate change solutions, compares this to 37 million cars’ worth of greenhouse gases. So this whole notion of stocking up does not serve us — in any sense of the word. As my family can tell you, I am obsessive about keeping my fridge and pantry clean and organized. Even with a focused effort on not buying too much, I still find uneaten, spoiled food. Things that have helped us get better at wasting less: · Shopping with a grocery list and sticking to it. · Reflecting rather than reacting as we shop.

RULE NO. 2: SWAP IT When you can, swap your products housed in plastic or aluminum for ones in glass or paper packaging — particularly with things where there are easy and delicious alternatives. These are easy wins. Sometimes the solutions to using less plastic are just yummier: Grey Barn bread in a paper bag vs. the storebought bread in plastic. A no-brainer.

RULE NO. 3: BUY FROM THE BULK BINS This does not mean buying in bulk, because that will lead to food waste (see Rule No 1). When it is possible again, we can all bring our glass jars to Cronig’s, weigh them, and fill them.

Zero waste. Hopefully, other shops will follow this example, and follow suit. In the meantime, I am disappointed that so many of the small shops and farm stands here sell things like nuts,

chocolate chips, and other products in plastic containers when paper bags are an easy and better alternative.

RULE NO. 4: CHALLENGE YOURSELF Every few months I give myself a goal. One challenge for us has been plastic bags. We stopped buying them, and I’m happy to tell you we are still alive. Yes, it is occasionally a pain in the butt, but we’ve found alternatives — Mason jars, silicone bags.

Not using plastic bags continues to be our biggest challenge, as so much produce comes in prepackaged plastic bags. Prepandemic we could rebag our kale from Ghost Island’s plastic bags, but right now it’s not an option. So we reuse these bags.

RULE NO. 5: STORE IT WELL Another irony of the zero-waste movement here in the U.S. is that while there is not a lot of attention to how the food is originally packaged, we have a zillion online stores selling us products to store our food once we have it — food huggers (they literally hug your food and serve as a cling wrap replacement), food stashers, beeswax wrap, Mason jars, silicone bowl lids, stainless steel boxes. All of these alternatives are worth investing in, if you will use them. In our house, Mason jars are a staple for holding everything from grated Parmesan to loose tea and sugar.

While some are fans of the beeswax wrap, I find it tends to hold the smell of whatever food it is wrapped around. So I opt for silicone products, which don’t hold odors, and can tolerate super-hot water and soap many times over.

RULE NO. 6: DISPOSE OF IT WELL Compost first, then recycle, then and only then trash.

Have a compost pile, use a friend’s compost pile, bring your compost to Island Grown’s compost site, or compost in your town’s composting program. It’s easy, and makes a huge difference. According to Project Drawdown, “Nearly half of the solid waste produced globally is organic or biodegradable.

Much of it ends up in landfills; there, it decomposes in the absence of oxygen and produces the greenhouse gas methane … Rather than generating methane, the composting process converts organic material into stable soil carbon, while retaining water and nutrients of the original waste matter.

The result is carbon sequestration as well as production of a valuable fertilizer.” (See how Dear Dot describes the benefits of composting: bit.ly/DOT-compost.) Composting and recycling will drastically minimize your trash output.

marthasvineyard.

.com 17

AT HOME

LAUNDRY QUESTIONS • DEAR DOT

dot DEAR

Illustration Elissa Turnbull Dot tackles your thorniest questions from a perch on her porch.

Dear Dot,

Ads for laundry strips have been showing up in my Facebook feed, touting their eco-friendliness. Do they work? Also … what are laundry strips?

–The Laundress, Oak Bluffs

My dear Laundress,

The data gods with their dark magic algorithms have determined that you are an eco-warrior, apparently. And also, it would seem, a resident washer-in-chief.

Ads for these strips populate my Facebook feed too, all but crowding out my hazily remembered high school chums’ saccharine odes to the sisterhood.

I was intent on ignoring both the ads and the odes, but a friend insisted that I try the laundry strips, going so far as to mail me some from TruEarth, a British Columbia–based company that ships to the U.S. To answer your first question, laundry strips are tiny, highly concentrated strips of detergent that replace your liquid or powder laundry detergent. Their eco bona fides aren’t simply that they contain less harmful ingredients than typical detergents, but that they have eliminated plastic packaging. There are a few brands, including Kind Laundry strips, which was recently awarded Best Eco-Friendly Laundry Detergent

by Better Homes and Gardens, for

whatever that’s worth. The two brands I tried, TruEarth and Nature Clean, both package unwrapped strips in a simple cardboard envelope. What’s more, laundry strips are light as a feather, which makes transport a breeze, and vastly reduces the use of fossil fuels to ship compared with liquid or powder detergent.

I can also report that yes, they work, which I know because, as mother to three kids who seem to change their clothes a half-dozen times a day, I do a lot of laundry. However, a caveat: Don’t expect planet-friendly laundry detergents, including strips, to produce the same blinding white clean that some (ahem, Tide) conventional detergents do. That Woah! White! is thanks to what’s called “optical brighteners” in the biz, which don’t actually make clothes cleaner — they just cast a blueish tinge rather than a yellowish one, making clothes appear cleaner. Line-drying your whites in a sunny spot can brighten them up.

My advice: Give strips a try, and share those ads on your social feeds to spread the message far and wide! Better still, ask your grocery store manager to stock them. The only companies I can find are Canadian, but they all ship to the U.S.

–Love, Dot

MARTHA’S VINEYARD / DAILY DOT / BUYBETTER MARTKETPLACE

Advertise with Bluedot Living Reach 50,000+ eco-conscious readers in our digital and print publications.

Contact adsales@bluedotliving.com to reserve a space in our future publications!

BLUEDOT KITCHEN / THE HUB NATIONAL NEWSLETTER 18

Bluedot GreenGuide 2 0 2 3 - 2 0 2 4

ROOM FOR CHANGE • THE CLOSET & FLYING LESS

AT HOME

Room For Change

FLYING

By Sam Moore Illustration Kate Feiffer

While they account for less than 5% of aviation emissions, private jets still emit more than some small countries. Can we talk about that?

What You can Do • Fly less. Seriously. When time/ distance allows, take a train, a bus, a car.

• If you must fly, book economy.

First-class generates two to four times the emissions of economy.

• Fly direct, non-stop when possible.

Proportionally, more fuel is burned during take-off and landing, making non-stop flights more fuel-efficient.

And check out the International Council on Clean Transportation, which can tell you how to book the least emitting flights (bit.ly/flightsemissions).

• Fly during the day. Contrails and the cirrus clouds created by planes trap heat and cause warming, but especially at night. During the day, these contrails and clouds reflect sunlight back into space, thereby reducing the impact.

• Consider buying offsets, which, while not perfect, can contribute to counterbalancing some of the emissions from flying. Bluedot’s own Dear Dot guides you to the most impactful offset programs (bit.ly/dot-carbonoffsets).

The Closet

By Mollie Doyle

Shrink your

closet grow your joy Basically, we all need to come up with a new set of closet rules.

• Stop clicking and buying in the most obvious, convenient places • Buy a company’s values rather than for a value (when you can) • Buy less • Buy only what you love and will absolutely wear • Buy high quality, natural organic fibers • Buy for all seasons • Buy used • Buy local • Pass it on or … (maybe even), pass it up?

ILLUSTRATION BY KATE FEIFFER

marthasvineyard.

.com 19

BIODIVERSITY • FIELD NOTE

FIELDNote To: Bluedot Living From: The MV Atlas of Life (MVAL) Subject: Learn about Vineyard Biodiversity (or Help Study It!)

T

he Martha’s Vineyard Atlas of Life (MVAL) project at BiodiversityWorks exists to promote awareness of the ecological value of the Island. If you’re curious about what species occur here, the MVAL website includes a section of checklists for various groups of plants and animals: mval.biodiversityworksmv.org/species-lists. The site also offers news of important local discoveries, an events calendar, and a section of web, print, and YouTube resources for Vineyard nature buffs.

A fun and easy way to participate in the MVAL project is by using the “community science” platform iNaturalist (inaturalist.org). With an iNaturalist account and either a camera and computer or a smartphone and the iNat app, you can contribute sightings and get assistance (from both artificial intelligence and human experts) identifying what you’ve found.

An iNaturalist project pulls together all observations submitted from the Vineyard, allowing users to search or explore almost 30,000 observations of Island plants and animals: inaturalist. org/projects/martha-s-vineyard-atlas-of-life.

20

Bluedot GreenGuide 2 0 2 3 - 2 0 2 4

Naturalist Sharon Britton used iNaturalist to document the Vineyard’s first Azalea Miner Bee (Andrena cornelli) on a rhododendron in West Tisbury.

“ PHOTO BY CAROL VEGA

“We must rewild the world,” said none other than Sir David Attenborough, natural historian and creator of iconic nature documentaries.

Which means … what exactly? I think back on a winter visit to Jackson, Wyoming, where an elk was window shopping in the town square, and to the Bangkok market where I watched a monkey wreak delightful (to me!) havoc, leaping from display to display.

An online dictionary uses “rewilding” in this sentence:

IN A WORD • REWILD

Rewild

/rē ' wīld/

in a word

"Talk of rewilding North America gives some people nightmares of wolves running through the streets of Chicago and of grizzlies in LA"

Rewilding? Might be a bit of a tough sell.

But in point of fact, rewilding isn’t nature encroaching on our human environment so much as it is giving nature back to its non-human inhabitants. It’s “restoring ecosystems to the point where nature can take care of itself,” say the folks at Rewilding Britain, whose slogan is “Think Big, Act Wild.” The term itself was coined in the early 1990s by Dave Foreman, co-founder of Wild Earth magazine and The Wildlands Project, according to the podcast Rewilding Earth.

The Global Rewilding Alliance, a network of more than 125 organizations, was formed in 2020 to create and promote rewilding projects around the world.

“We believe that the world can be more beautiful, more diverse, more equitable, more wild,” reads the group’s charter.

To that end, the Alliance organized the world’s first rewilding day on March 20, 2021. Though I missed the occasion, the rewilding initiative is growing like, uh, rewildfire. Originally conceived as a North-America-wide initiative focused on the three conservation Cs (cores, corridors, and carnivores), rewilding has expanded to South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and more.

Rewilding typically refers to largescale projects — restoring the natural course of rivers and reconnecting them with floodplains, creating wildlife

corridors or moving wildlife to decimated areas to restore biodiversity, cultivating kelp forests and marine ecosystems. But micro rewilding, as it’s called, plays a key role too. Siân Moxon, the founder of Britain’s Rewild My Street, told a reporter that micro rewilding can be as simple as planting a tree, adding a bee bowl or bird bath to your garden, or encouraging vines to climb the side of your home. The good news about micro rewilding is that neatness is out. Nature, says Moxon, is messy. And wild.

–Leslie Garrett

marthasvineyard.

.com 21

COASTAL BIRDS • SPECIES IDENTIFIER

A Great Black-backed Gull perched atop a large rock at Makonikey.

22

Bluedot GreenGuide 2 0 2 3 - 2 0 2 4

SPECIES IDENTIFIER • COASTAL BIRDS

BEST BEACH PRACTICES to help threatened shorebirds whose populations are declining globally:

Manage food scraps (carry in and carry out) to prevent attracting predators of eggs and chicks (gulls, crows, skunks, raccoons), respect nesting areas, keep kites and fireworks 200 yards away from posted areas, keep dogs away from nesting areas.

marthasvineyard.

.com 23

GREAT TRAILS • FIELD NOTE

FIELDNote PHOTOS COURTESY MASS AUDUBON/FELIX NECK

To: Bluedot Living From: The Staff at Mass Audubon/Felix Neck Subject: Here are a few of our favorite trails

MARSH TRAIL

Jessa Elsasser, Felix Neck Property Manager My favorite trail at Felix Neck is the Marsh Trail. It takes you through several different terrains, making it feel like quite the adventure! It starts off woodsy, then goes to Marsh-y, then beach-y, then everything all over again! Ending (or beginning, depending on your direction!) with a beautiful boardwalk stroll down to the duck blind overlooking the pond, where you can take a rest on the bench and get a secret peek at the swans and any other birds that might be around.

Josey Kirkland, Islands Education Manager There are great views of the salt marsh and Senge from the Marsh Trail.

A bird blind looks over waterfowl pond for peaceful observations and meditation … it even takes you through a pine forest so when the season is right you can look for warblers.

Sydney Pigott, Felix Neck Education Coordinator I love taking students out to the salt marsh monitoring station and discussing the data that's collected, view Sarson's island, and grab some sea pickles.

Anne Ouwerkerk, ern and Feather Preschool Director I love walking by the pond, through the woods, over a stream, by the marsh, and being able to see Sengekontacket and the ocean at the end. You can see it all!

24

Bluedot GreenGuide 2 0 2 3 - 2 0 2 4

MOFFETT TRAIL

Suzan Bellincampi, Islands Director Here you might just find the best Island view around. The sky and water come together, extending beyond Sengekontacket Pond, over an island filled with birds out to Nantucket Sound.

Takes my breath away every time.

SASSAFRAS TRAIL

Liz Cosgrove, Office Manager Throughout the year I love to wander down the Sassafras Trail to the inside shoreline of Sengekontacket. The picturesque footbridge over turtle pond is a wonderful place to take photos of the swans and ducks that paddle past.

Once at the beach there are plenty of little sea creatures such as hermit crabs, fiddler crabs and minnows to watch as they go about their daily routine.

Overhead during the season, you may spot an osprey with a fish in its claws, or a cormorant diving for its next meal.

I find walking the trail in the early morning a great way to find peace and start the day fresh.

JESSICA HANCOCK TRAIL

Oliver Osnoss, Islands Property Manager The changes in vegetation and habitat. Views out to the pond, and the hidden amphitheater. As a new staff member, I only recently discovered this trail and still have not yet walked all the trails but this one surprised me and stuck out for sure.

SHAD TRAIL

Liz Dengenis, Islands Operations Manager After getting a glimpse of some sunning painted turtles on the pond I love to turn onto the Shad trail and notice the ground beneath my feet slowly becoming more sandy as I search for blueberries and huckleberries starting to ripen (but leave for the birds). Emerging into Major’s Cove in Senge greeted by some sea pickles and maybe a green heron never gets old as I reach the end of the Shad Trail and stroll along the shoreline.

FIELD NOTE • GREAT TRAILS

FELIX NECK WILDLIFE SANCTUARY

marthasvineyard.

.com 25

LOCAL PLANTS • FIELD NOTE

FIELDNote

To: Bluedot Living From: Polly Hill Arboretum Subject: MV Wildtype: Native Pollinators Grown from Local Island Seeds

MVW

ildtype is a branding mechanism that denotes plants are from Island genotypes — only local genetics are used. Polly Hill Arboretum is the only resource for these plants.

This is a guarantee that the species is what it says on the label, and that they come from seeds collected from wild, native plants.

Here are some you could plant in your Island yard.

COMMON NAME

Stiff Aster

Ionactis linariifolia Zone: 4 to 9

Type: Herbaceous perennial Island Native: Native to the Vineyard sandplain Zone: 4 to 9 Height: 1.00 to 2.00 feet Spread: 0.50 to 1.00 feet Bloom Time: July Bloom Description: Blue-violet to purple with yellow centers Sun: Full sun Water: Dry to medium Maintenance: Low Flower: Showy, good cut Attracts: Butterflies Tolerates: Drought; dry soil; shallow, rocky soil

26

Bluedot GreenGuide 2 0 2 3 - 2 0 2 4

FIELD NOTE • LOCAL PLANTS

COMMON NAME

Milkweed

Asclepias syriaca Zone: 3 to 9 Type: Herbaceous perennial Family: Apocynaceae, Island Native

COMMON NAME

Cardinal Flower Zone: 3 to 9

Zone: 3 to 9 Height: 2.00 to 3.00 feet Spread: 0.75 to 1.00 feet Bloom Time: June to August Bloom Description: Pink, mauve Sun: Full sun Water: Dry to medium Maintenance: Low Suggested Use: Naturalize Flower: Showy, Fragrant Attracts: Butterflies Fruit: Showy Tolerates: Deer; drought; erosion; dry soil; shallow, rocky soil

Type: Herbaceous perennial Family: Campanulaceae Native Range: Americas Zone: 3 to 9 Height: 2.00 to 4.00 feet Spread: 1.00 to 2.00 feet Bloom Time: July to September Bloom Description: Scarlet red, white or rose Sun: Full sun to part shade Water: Medium to wet Maintenance: Low Suggested Use: Naturalize, rain garden Flower: Showy Attracts: Hummingbirds, butterflies Tolerate: Wet soils to moderately moist — good for rain gardens

Polly Hill Arboretum 809 State Rd, West Tisbury, MA 02575 (508) 693-9426 www.pollyhillarboretum.org

marthasvineyard.

.com 27

INVASIVE SPECIES • ADVICE

InvaSive pecies

By Leslie Garrett Illustration by Kevin McGrath

28

Bluedot GreenGuide 2 0 2 3 - 2 0 2 4

ADVICE • INVASIVE SPECIES

Who’s native? Who’s not?

And are they all unwelcome?

The Vineyard plays host to a number of species that aren’t, historically, from around here. Some of these interlopers behave themselves. But others wreak havoc, displacing valuable native species and transforming fragile ecosystems.

W H AT YOU CA N D O While methods to eradicate invasive plant species run the gamut from mechanical removal to applying herbicides — which need to be left to the pros — there are still important ways each of us can help.

Duh … don’t plant invasives.

Remove invasives if they’re on your property but do so in a way that doesn’t cause further spreading. Persistently cutting them back will often do the trick. There are some species, such as Japanese knotweed, Phragmites, and Japanese stilt grass, that should be removed only by professionals.

Plant native species that support biodiversity, especially pollinator gardens, which attract all kinds of insects.

If you have a landscaper, ensure

that they have an understanding of the problem of invasive species and a commitment to planting native or noninvasive species.

Don’t bring plants, soil, or mulch from off-Island.

Embrace messiness. Leave seed heads for birds, leave leaf debris for cocoons and larva.

Reduce lawn size and expand

garden size.

Install bird houses, bat boxes, and owl boxes in close proximity to native plants.

Tap into Polly Hill Arboretum’s vast database of native or non-invasive options at bit.ly/PHA-invasives.

marthasvineyard.

.com 29

BIVALVIFY • FIELD NOTE

30

Bluedot GreenGuide 2 0 2 3 - 2 0 2 4

FIELD NOTE • ISLAND FISH FOR FAMILIES

FIELDNote

To: Bluedot Living From: The Martha’s Vineyard Fishermen’s Preservation Trust (MVFPT) Subject: Island Fish for Island Families, and More Resources

ISLAND FISH FOR

LUKE’S LEGACY LOAN PROGRAM This program was named in honor of our late board member and fisherman, Luke Gurney. This program allows fishermen to purchase necessary fishing permits while paying for them over time as they use the permit to make income on the water. Since the launch of this program, we have expanded to help fishermen in the lobster, sea scallop, conch, black sea bass, and fluke fisheries.

MARTHA’S VINEYARD SEAFOOD COLLABORATIVE: In 2021 we purchased and re-opened a wholesale seafood market in Menemsha, which we call the MV Seafood Collaborative. We purchase seafood from approximately 55 local fishing businesses, while providing necessary waterside infrastructure (ice, unload-

of

Martha's Vineyard A CHEF'S GUIDE

ISLAND FAMILIES

Food insecurity is on the rise on the Island. To help, the MVFPT is donating locally caught seafood to Island Grown Initiative to help provide healthy and delicious meals to our Islanders in Need.

By donating, you can help create a new market for fishermen to sell their fresh catch, strengthen our local food network, reduce food waste, and make local seafood accessible to local families. Email info@mvfpt.org or visit MVFishermensPreservationTrust.org/Seafood-Donations

Seasonal Seafood

TABLE O

O SEAS

EAF NAL S

FC

S ONTENT

ART OF M

OOD

HA'S

VINEY

ARD

8 3

7

FINFISH

9

Sea Bass 1. Black Tuna 2. Bluefin 3. Bluefish

4 2 6

4. Fluke h 5. Monkfis

5

1

6. Scup d Bass 7. Stripe 8. Tautog r r Flounde 9. Winte fin Tuna 10. Yellow

10

7

ANS

USTACE

H and CR

SHELLFIS

ter can Lobs 1. Ameri p Sea Scallo 2. Atlantic l sse 3. Blue Mu led Whelk 4. Channe Oyster 5. Eastern hell Clam 6. Hards Crab 7. Jonah p Bay Scallo 8. Northern ll Clam 9. Softshe 10. Squid

3 6 8

1

BLUEFIS

POMA

9

5

ALSO KN

10

4

SPECIES INFO

TOMU

OWN AS

S SAL T

: TAILO

H

ATRIX

R ELF AN

D SNAP

PER Nickname d "chopp er" for the Usually gro ir voracious w to be 20 feeding "–25" lon Fish bigge and g, but can fighting r than 10 habits. lbs are cal grow to "snapper 42" and led "horse s." can weigh s," while Migratory up to 30 youngste , ranging lbs. rs of 1–2 throughou lbs are kno and from t the Atlant Spain to wn as ic So Ocean fro uthern Af Caught via rica. m Nova gillnets, Scotia to trawls, or Argentin rod & ree a l.

2

LOCAL HARVES T July– Octob

er

CUTS Wh

ole (round

, or scaled

CHARAC TERISTIC S

& gutted);

Filet

Has a ric h, full fla vor and the fish, coarse, mo the more ist meat pronounce and milde with edible d the tas r flesh. Its skin. The te. Young delicate larger of seafoo er bluefi flavor can d. The me sh have be more sweeter at of unc blue-gray "fishy" tha ooked blu with a bro n other typ efish ran wnish ting strong-fla ges from es e, vored, da and becom light tan color to rk strip of es lighter cooking. meat on when coo the filet ked. The may be rem oved befor Best eaten e as fresh as possib iced and le; deter tends to iorates rap degrade idly if not over time. immediat It does not ely keep or fre PREPAR eze well.

ATION Bake, Bro il, Fry, Gri Its rich fla ll, Smoke vor can be nicely com and lemon plemente juice or tom d by acidic minimize ato. Marin ingredien fishiness. ate bluefi ts like lim For an eas sh or coo mayonnai e k in acidic y entree se and bro , brush a liquids to il it. Bluefi Grilling allo filet with sh can als ws some mustard o be grilled or of the fat can be frie , roa to drip away. sted or ba d, since larger fish ked.

Only small and served are too oily bluefish whole. Lar (snapper . Snapper ge fish can s) s do well be baked breaded whole. , fried, NUTR

ing, gin boom, and refrigerated space). We continue to build and expand this program and plan to provide more seafood donations while continuing to offer a stable market for fishermen.

Our Community Supported Fishery share program runs out of our MV Seafood Collaborative headquarters in Menemsha and shares are picked up at the West Tisbury Farmers Market.

ITION

Excellent

source of

Calories: 124 Fat Calor ies: 38 Total Fat : 4.2 g

FISHERIES RESEARCH We work with universities and other groups to connect fishermen to

selenium

, niacin, vitamin B12 , and om Saturate ega-3s. Go d Fat: 0.9 od source g Choleste of magnesi Protein: rol: 59 mg um and pot 20 g Sodium: assium.

Omega-3 60 mg : 0.83 g

scientific projects to help increase our understanding of stocks, species behavior, and how we can harvest in more sustainable ways. Currently we are working on an alternative to horseshoe crab bait in the whelk or conch fishery.

marthasvineyard.

.com 31

EAT LOCAL FISH • FOOD

SEA SCALLOPS

with Parsnip Puree and Herbs Serves 2

Pristine sea scallops arrive at Vineyard fish docks daily, caught by local fishermen. The quality can’t be beat. The cooking times can’t be beat either — about 2 minutes a side. In this recipe from Catherine Walthers, scallops are paired with an easy lemon herb sauce that cuts the richness of the scallops. You can vary this by substituting pureed squash for the parsnip.

32

JUNE

MAY

MARCH

FEBRUARY

THE SEASON JANUARY

FISH

3. Make the herb sauce by combining the basil, parsley, olive oil, shallot, and salt and pepper. Just before serving, add the lemon juice (to keep sauce bright green).

APRIL

2. Place the diced parsnip in a saucepan of boiling water and cook until tender, about 25-30 minutes. Drain. Puree in the food processor with 1 tablespoon of butter and the half-and-half. Season with salt and pepper and set aside in a bowl.

PHOTO: RANDI BAIRD

1. Remove the muscle from the scallops and rinse well. Dry on a paper towel and set aside in the fridge until ready to cook.

WINTER FLOUNDER

NORTHERN BAY SCALLOP

Bluedot GreenGuide 2 0 2 3 - 2 0 2 4

SCUP

WHELK (CONCH)

FOOD • EAT LOCAL FISH

4. To cook the scallops, use a cast-iron skillet or any skillet with a thick bottom. Heat on medium-high. Add the remaining tablespooon of butter and a bit of olive oil and sear the scallops on one side until golden, about 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Flip and sear another 1 to 2 minutes longer.

5. To plate, smear reheated parsnips on the plate. Place seared scallops on top and spoon the sauce alongside or in dollops on the plate. Enjoy!

Recipe from Catherine Walthers

Ingredients

Lemon Herb Sauce

* Jonah crab * Softshell clam * Squid

BOUNTY

* American Lobster * Atlantic sea scallop * Eastern oyster * Hardshell clam

Shellfish and crustaceans

BLACK SEA BASS

YEAR-ROUND

BLUEFISH

DECEMBER

TRIGGER FISH

NOVEMBER

TAUTOG

OCTOBER

JULY

SEPT.

2 Tbsp. fresh basil, chopped finely 2 Tbsp. fresh parsley leaves. depending on appetite 3-4 parsnips peeled and diced, chopped finely 6 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil about 2 cups 2 Tbsp. butter, divided 1 Tbsp. shallot, finely minced 1/4 cup half-and-half 1/2 lemon (about 2 tbsp.

Olive oil Salt and fresh pepper Salt and pepper

AUGUST

6-8 sea scallops or more

BLUEFIN TUNA FLUKE STRIPED BASS MAHI MAHI

MONKFISH YELOWFIN TUNA

marthasvineyard.

.com 33

EAT LOCAL FISH • FOOD

1. To prep and cook the fish. Slice the fish in half lengthwise to make smaller fillet pieces (3- to 4-inch long pieces). Cut any long pieces in half.

Season both sides with salt and pepper.

Have 3 bowls ready with flour, egg, and panko bread crumbs seasoned with the spices. Dip each fillet piece in flour first, then egg, and finally press into the bread crumbs on each side. Put in the refrigerator until ready to cook.

2. Make the toppings, set aside in bowls that will go on the table.

3. Heat a heavy skillet, add a bit of olive oil and butter, and cook the fish until golden on each side, approximately 3 or 4 minutes per side (though this can change depending on thickness). The amount of oil/butter depends on size of pan – but it should be enough to get crust golden.

While fish is cooking, heat the corn tortillas according to package instructions.

4. Place everything on the table — the bowls of toppings, fish on a platter, and tortillas in a basket so everyone can help themselves.

FLUKE

Fresh salsa

Combine chopped fresh tomatoes, seeds squeezed out, (Maine Backyard brand are good winter tomatoes) with 1 tablespoon or so finely chopped red onion and red pepper, some chopped cilantro, a minced garlic clove, olive oil, and squeeze of a lime. Taste and adjust.

Fish Tacos

PHOTO: RANDI BAIRD

Recipe from Catherine Walthers Serves 4

Fluke is a popular, locally sourced fish.

It’s a type of flounder, but locals here often label it as Vineyard Sole. You can use fluke in recipes that call for sole. It’s a favorite of mine and perfect for tacos. All the toppings can be made ahead of time, earlier in the day, or a few hours ahead.

Just before serving, cook the fish and heat the tortillas.

34

Bluedot GreenGuide 2 0 2 3 - 2 0 2 4

INGREDIENTS

3 to 4 pieces of fluke 1 egg 1/4 cup flour 2 cups panko bread crumbs 1 package corn tortillas

Ingredients for toppings, below the preparation instructions.

Cilantro Lime Sauce

In a food processor, add about a cup of Hellman’s mayo with a good handful of chopped cilantro (about half a bunch), pinch of salt, and squeeze of 1/2 or 1 lime, depending on juiciness. Process until smooth. Taste and adjust.

Slaw

Combine thinly sliced green cabbage, maybe some red for color, and a grated carrot.

FOOD • EAT LOCAL FISH

Tautog is a beautiful white fish seasonally available around Martha’s Vineyard starting in September and continuing through October, possibly into November. Get out of your fish rut by trying a few new sustainable species. In this recipe, provided by Vanessa Seder, tautog is paired with roasted potatoes and a wonderful herb sauce. Bonus: This sauce goes nicely with other pan-seared fish varieties. Seder is the author of Eat Cool and Secret Sauces.

DIRECTIONS For the fingerling potatoes: 1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

PHOTO: RANDI BAIRD

PAN-SEARED TAUTOG with Salsa Verde and Roasted Fingerlings Serves 4

INGREDIENTS For the roasted fingerling potatoes:

1 pound fingerling potatoes 3 sprigs fresh rosemary 4 sprigs fresh thyme 3 tblsp extra virgin olive oil

Sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

For the tautog:

4 tautog fillets Sea salt Freshly ground black pepper 3 tblsps extra virgin olive oil

For the salsa verde:

2 medium cloves garlic 1 tsp sea salt 1 tsp orange zest 1 tsp lemon zest 2 tblsps fresh lemon juice 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil 1/2 cup loosely packed

chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley 1/2 cup losely packed chopped fresh basil Freshly ground black pepper

2. Halve the potatoes and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Add the sprigs of rosemary, thyme, olive oil, salt and pepper, and toss to combine. Spread out on the baking sheet and place in the oven.

3. Roast the potatoes, tossing once or twice during cooking, until the potatoes are cooked through and golden brown in parts, about 45 minutes.

For the salsa verde:

1. Meanwhile, place the garlic cloves on a cutting board. Using the side of a chef ’s knife, press to crush the garlic. Add the salt to the garlic and continue to chop and press with the side of the knife until a paste forms.

2. Transfer the salted garlic to a bowl along with the orange zest, lemon zest, lemon juice, and olive oil. Stir in the parsley and basil, and season to taste with pepper. Set aside.

For the tautog:

1. Remove the fish from the refrigerator and transfer plate lined with paper towel. Let stand for 15 minutes at room temperature. Before frying, make sure the surface of the fish is very dry, using paper towels to wipe up any additional moisture. Season both sides of the fish with salt and pepper.

2. Heat a large 12-inch cast-iron or non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the oil and heat until it shimmers.

3. Carefully add the tautog fish to the skillet, presentation side down. Lightly press down on the fish to create a nice sear, do not move the fish. Cook until golden brown on the surface, 4 to 5 minutes. Use a fish spatula to carefully flip the fish and continue to cook 2 to 3 minutes until just opaque.

marthasvineyard.

.com 35

EAT LOCAL FISH • FOOD 3 tbsp. scallions or chives, green section, finely chopped ¼ cup minced red pepper ⅓ cup chopped fresh or fresh-frozen Martha’s Vineyard kelp 1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice 1 tbsp. fresh chopped dill ¼ tsp. each salt and pepper Remoulade sauce, your favorite recipe, to serve

Squeeze any additional liquid from the crab after it has thawed, and add to a mixing bowl. Add the egg, mayonnaise, panko breadcrumbs, scallions, red pepper, kelp, lemon juice, dill and salt and pepper. Mix gently. Let sit about 10–15 minutes before forming into cakes to let breadcrumbs absorb extra moisture.

Form into cakes about 2 to 3 inches in diameter. Add some butter and olive oil to a skillet and gently cook until each side is golden. Serve with a remoulade sauce or salsa.

COTTAGE CITY

KELP CLAM CHOWDER Note about kelp: I created all of these recipes when I had fresh kelp this spring. If you are unable to get fresh kelp, try the fresh-frozen kelp Cottage City sells at the West Tisbury Farmers’ Market. The volume or texture after freezing could be different, so use your cook’s judgment when measuring. — Catherine Walthers

This simple, yet delicious chowder has both clams and kelp seaweed and is a match made on Martha’s Vineyard. I adapted it from a recipe I first tried at Jessica Roddy’s Chilmark home, after she adapted it from a New York Times recipe by Sam Sifton.

3 to 4 dozen medium-sized clams, cherrystones work nicely 3 tbsp. butter 2 med. onions, diced PHOTO: RANDI BAIRD 4 med. Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut into All recipes by Catherine Walthers approx. ½–inch dice ¾ cup white wine 4 sprigs thyme 2 bay leaves 2 cups cream 1 cup chopped fresh (or fresh frozen) Cottage City Kelp Freshly ground black pepperChopped parsley You can usually find the freshest crab in the frozen fish case at one of Oyster crackers, optional

EASY KELP CRAB CAKES the local fish markets. These go so fast, I usually start by doubling the recipe. If you catch and pick your crabs, lucky you. Makes 6 2½-inch crabcakes. Serves 3–4.

18-oz frozen package of Jonah or rock crab, thawed (about 1½ cups) 1 egg, mixed with a fork ¼ cup mayonnaise ⅓ cup panko breadcrumbs

36

Bluedot GreenGuide 2 0 2 3 - 2 0 2 4

Cook the clams in batches. Use a large wide-bottomed pan with a lid, and bring about 1½ cups of water to a boil. Add the clams in one layer, cover, and steam until the clams open (4 to 6 minutes for littlenecks or cherrystones). I lift the lid a few times and remove any opened clams to keep them as tender as possible.

When all the clams in the first batch are open and removed, pour the clam broth into a measuring cup, leaving the last bit of sandy water in the pan. Rinse the pan and repeat, adding another 1½

FOOD • EAT LOCAL FISH

KELP LEMON BUTTER FOR FISH This makes a great sauce for fish. I’ve used it on crispy local fluke and scallops, but try it with your favorite fish preparation. Makes enough for 2 dinners for 4. ½ cup fresh Martha’s Vineyard kelp, chopped 1 stick of butter, room temperature 1 tbsp. shallots, minced 2 tsp. fresh tarragon, chopped 1 tsp. lemon zest (from about 1 lemon) 1 tbsp. lemon juice

PHOTO: RANDI BAIRD

cups of water until all the clams are cooked. Reserve 4 cups of clam broth.

Let cool slightly and remove from the shell. Pour the reserved clam broth through a fine mesh strainer, coffee filter, or paper towel to catch any remaining sand.

Put a soup pot on medium-low and melt the better. Add the onions and cook, stirring frequently, until they are soft but not brown, about 10 minutes. Stir in potatoes and wine, and continue cooking until wine has nearly evaporated and the potatoes have just started to soften, about 5 minutes. Add 3 cups clam broth. Potatoes should be covered by the liquid, so add more clam juice, if needed. Add the thyme and bay leaves.

Partly cover the pot and simmer gently until potatoes are tender (make sure they are tender), approximately 10–15 minutes.

Meanwhile, roughly chop the clams (not finely chopped).

When potatoes are tender, add cream, and stir in chopped clams and chopped kelp. Add black pepper to taste. Let sit until ready to serve. Just before serving, remove the thyme sprigs and bay leaves, and heat gently but do not let chowder come to a boil. Garnish with chopped parsley. Serve with oyster crackers, if you have them.

Place all the ingredients in a mixing bowl. Using a fork, press the butter and other ingredients together until evenly combined.

I place the mixture on a piece of plastic, in the rough shape of a stick of butter. Roll up and twist the ends together. Refrigerate until ready to use.

To use: If the piece of fish I’m using is cooked in a heavy skillet, I usually wipe out the skillet when the fish is done before adding the compound butter. Usually the sauce serving is 1 to 2 Tbsp. of the kelp butter compound per serving. Melt the compound in the pan and cook on medium-low a few minutes so shallots are cooked. Add additional lemon juice, if needed.

Spoon sauce around the fish.

KELP RANCH DRESSING This is a great dressing for any summer salad, and also perfect as a dip for fresh-cut veggies. For the dip, you can add a dollop more of mayonnaise to thicken, if desired. ⅓ cup low-fat buttermilk ¼ cup mayonnaise 2 tbsp. yogurt 1 clove garlic, finely minced 1 tbsp. apple cider vinegar 2 tbsp. canola oil ¾ tsp. Martha’s Vineyard kelp flakes pepper 2 tbsp. minced fresh chives

In a bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, mayonnaise, yogurt, garlic, and vinegar. Whisk in the oil until creamy. Season generously with salt, lots of pepper, and chives.

marthasvineyard.

.com 37

A SHARING OF MEANS • FEATURE

Skillet

Irish Soda Bread Story and Photos by Mollie Doyle

38

Bluedot GreenGuide 2 0 2 3 - 2 0 2 4

FOOD • SKILLET IRISH SODA BREAD

E

ven though I lived in New York City for more than a decade, had eaten food by some of the city’s best chefs, and edited many cookbooks by some of these chefs, I did not sincerely appreciate food until I was pregnant. In fact, it was food that told my now-husband Thomas and I that we were pregnant. We were at the International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam, and had just eaten a fantastic lunch of butternut squash soup and salad, when we walked by one of the city’s many shwarma shops, and I just turned in, ordered a chicken kebab, and inhaled it before Thomas could vocalize his shock. Until that moment, I had been oscillating between vegetarianism and veganism for years. A day later, I told him I wanted — no, needed — a burger. He suggested that we get a burger and a pregnancy test. Sure enough I was, as they say in Dutch, zwanger.

For the nearly 10 months I was pregnant with our daughter, I felt like I was eating every food, every flavor, for the first time. It was amazing. I felt liberated. After years of being ridiculously careful about every piece of food I put in my mouth, I ate what I was craving. This included wheat, some meat and poultry, and cheese. Oh my god, cheese!

And bread. I no longer cared what anyone had to say about gluten, bread was ... no, is ... a miracle.

A day or so after our daughter Emma was born, we left the hospital and went to my parents’ house. It was early August, and we were lucky that they were delighted to house two new, overwhelmed parents. I remember sitting down in a big white chair with Emma sleeping in my arms, and feeling the weight of parenthood descend. This incredible creature was now out in the world, and it was my job to keep her alive. Could I do it? The terror came flying in. This was not haunted house terror, it was visceral, I-am-drowning-

WHY CAST IRON SKILLETS ARE T H E S U S TA I N A B L E TOOL OF CHOICE ● U nlike many pans, cast iron is not coated in harmful toxic chemicals. ● A well-seasoned cast iron pan is as nonstick as any coated, nonstick pan .. .but again, no chemicals!

● E xcept by copper, the even heat distribution of a cast iron skillet is unparalleled. ● C ast iron skillets are a relative bargain. A Lodge 12-inch skillet is around $28, whereas an AllClad skillet is around $140, and an enameled cast iron 12-inch Le Creuset skillet is about $210. ● T hey are tremendously versatile.

You can cook with cast iron on your stovetop — from sauces to poaching — and use it for grilling or baking in your oven.

will-I-survive terror. At that moment, my mom walked into the room bearing a plate of warm Irish soda bread. I could smell the grated orange peel. I slathered a slice with salty butter and took a bite. The sweetness of the currents with the bite of citrus told me it was all going to be OK. I could do this. All that was ahead of me. Known and unknown.

So I share this recipe with you because it is one of those special memory foods for me.

Because this Irish soda bread reminds me of food’s incredible power to soothe, heal, and inspire. Because it is delicious.

I R I S H S O DA B R E A D

Great for a scared new parent, or anyone who loves yummy bread.

4 cups all-purpose flour, plus a tsp. for currants 3 Tbsp. sugar (or less) 1 tsp. baking soda 1½ tsp. kosher salt 4 Tbsp. butter, cut into cubes 1 egg 1¾ cups buttermilk (make sure you shake it!)

1 tsp. orange or lemon zest 1 cup dried currants

Preheat the oven to 375°. Line a 10-inch cast iron skillet with parchment paper.

Combine the dry ingredients. Add the butter to the dry ingredients, and mix until the butter is well incorporated.

Lightly beat the eggs and buttermilk together. Add the zest. Add the eggs, buttermilk, and zest to the dry mixture with butter.

Mix the currants with a bit of flour, and then add to the dough. Knead the dough into a large, round disk.

Place the disk in the center of the skillet, and slash an x across the top (a serrated knife works well here).

Bake for 45 to 50 minutes.

Serve warm or at room temperature. Same day is best! Yummiest with scrambled eggs ... maybe some lox. And lots of salty butter.

marthasvineyard.

.com 39

TIPS FROM CHEFS • ADVICE

Tips From Our Top Chefs • Electric tea kettles are far more energy efficient than stove top versions. The National Energy Lab estimates that an electric tea pot is 80% more efficient than using a gas stove. Gail Arnold says, “I never use a stove to boil water. If I need to add boiling water to a soup or something, I use our electric tea kettle.”

• Composting your food waste makes an enormous difference. According to Energy Shrink, the average household produces two tons

of municipal solid waste per year. “Of this, 69.5%, or 2,880 lbs. (1300 kg) is compostable.”

• Using non-toxic pans reduces exposure to harmful chemicals for everyone – from the people manufacturing them to the people using them.

• Use cloth kitchen towels in place of paper towels as much as possible. But, as Gavin Smith said, “Sometimes paper ones are just necessary.” In that case, look for 100% recycled.

Island chefs do so much research and really think about their tools, about appliances that will be efficient and effective, [and don’t] always buy new, instead heading to yard sales, Chicken Alley, and the Dumptique for kitchen supplies.

40

Bluedot GreenGuide 2 0 2 3 - 2 0 2 4

• Use small appliances more than big ones. Tina Miller says a toaster oven can roast a chicken as well as an oven and uses far less energy.

• Use coffee equipment that does not create waste.

In other words, please ditch the pod machine.

• Zap the microwave. In 2018, the University of Manchester in England conducted a study on microwaves and carbon emissions. Their conclusion: “Microwaves could be as bad for the environment as millions of cars.” It turns out that “Microwaves emit 7.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per year in the EU. This is equivalent to the annual emissions of 6.8 million cars.” Part of the issue with microwaves is that people throw theirs out before they need to, which adds to our human waste problem. So not only do they use a tremendous amount of energy, but they also increase our trash problem, which again, points to the idea of buying better and holding on to what you have longer.

Sign up for Bluedot Living’s BuyBetter Marketplace, a biweekly newsletter that navigates the confusing world of stuff.

Take advantage of our BLUEDOT discount codes.

bluedotliving.com/marketplace

SI

TTER

R

In a world of disposable goods, it’s hard to know which products are sustainable.

At Bluedot, we do the legwork for you by selecting items made with regard for the planet and its people.

marthasvineyard.

LE

PL

S

BuyBetter Marketplace

ET

Shop the

MARK

Buy less, but when you do — buy better. bluedotliving.com/marketplace

U P F OR O U

N G

ACE NE W

SCAN ME .com 41

WHAT EXACTLY IS A B CORP • Q&A

What Exactly is a B Corp?

Martha’s Vineyard Bank blazes the trail as the first B Corp bank in Massachusetts.

Interview by Lucas Thors Martha’s Vineyard Bank is the first bank in Massachusetts to be certified as a B Corp. This means they had to prove (and must continue to prove) that they go above and beyond to meet the highest standards in social and environmental performance. But what exactly did the bank have to do to meet the scrupulous qualifications involved in becoming a B Corp, and how does the financial institution strive to create a better Island?

B

luedot Living talked with James Anthony, President and CEO of MV Bank. He spoke about the B Corp certification process, some specific examples of B Corp values, and how the bank continues to be a responsible and active corporate citizen in the community.

Bluedot Living: What is a B Corp?

What does it take to become one?

James Anthony: B Corp certification is a third-party verification, confirmation, and affirmation of a company’s dedication to a number of things: its customers, its community and society at large, its employees, the environment, and good governance. It’s much like the organic certification for food products or the cruelty-free certification for cosmetics and consumer goods. The organization is committed to those ideals, and they have to illustrate that before they are certified.

The certification process is fairly rigorous. The heart of it all is called an Impact Assessment. This involves several hundred questions that all require confirmatory documents. B Lab is the company that administers that Impact Assessment. The company issues the certifications themselves and manages the process for ongoing assessment and recertification every three years.

BDL: How did you first hear about B Corp certification?

42

Bluedot GreenGuide 2 0 2 3 - 2 0 2 4

JA: I first learned about B Corp certification about six years ago from the bank’s attorney who was familiar with B Corps. As I described our objectives as an organization, she said that they very much aligned with the concepts of a certified B Corp organization. Our original intention was to use their free impact assessment online tool, that any company can access, to self-assess, [to gain] insight into the various things we could do to be a better organization, a better environmental steward, and a better corporate citizen.

As we went through the process, we realized that we were doing well, consistently exceeding most thresholds, so we embarked on the process of actually working toward certification. It took about six months to get aligned internally. We had to work with B Labs and with

the Massachusetts Division of Banks to make the necessary changes to our organizational documents. After that, it took about 18 months to work through the Impact Assessment.

MV Bank is the only Massachusetts bank that is B Corp certified. There are about twelve banks in the United States that are B Corp certified. It’s interesting and exciting that that number is increasing, and the number of B Corps worldwide has increased greatly recently. There are about 7,000 B Corps worldwide.

When I first started learning about this, I had never even really seen the logo — now I see it everywhere.

There are some individual organizations that are very familiar, like Ben and Jerry’s, Patagonia, Seventh Generation, and Athletica; a long list of consumer goods companies are now displaying the B Corp logo. They are really leading the way in this movement and are doing a lot in terms of social and environmental change.

BDL: How is MV Bank committed to making social improvements, both internally and externally in the community?

JA: We donate 100 percent of our non-retained earnings to local nonprofits, which represents about twenty percent of our total earnings. (The other eighty percent is retained so we can capitalize the bank and stay safe and secure.) One good example is a major donation we

Q&A • WHAT EXACTLY IS A B CORP made for the early childcare center at the carbon footprint analysis encouraged maybe even a juxtaposition of traits.

Martha’s Vineyard Community Services; us to look a lot closer at that impact.

I am a pretty devout capitalist, and at we donated one million dollars toward Although we don’t have renewables the same time I am concerned with construction. We also purchased a flash directly, all of our energy is produced by and motivated by creating a sustainable freezer for the Seafood Collaborative, renewables. It’s more expensive, but we environment. The B Corp logo says which allows them to flash freeze fish happily pay to have all of our electrici“Businesses as a Force for Good,” and so they can provide local seafood to the ty that powers all of our offices be 100 we have sort of coined that as “Banking Island and support fishermen. percent renewable. We are in the process as a Force for Good.”

Recently, we made donations to of replacing our fuel-burning furnaces I try to marry that motto with my Island Housing Trust for affordable own personal concerns, while also housing, which is a big interest of making sense of what it means to ours, along with workforce housing. be a mutual bank in a capitalist There is a stratum of people who work economic structure. As a mutual hard every day whose income level exbank we don’t have shareholders cludes them from affordable housing, per se, and everything I had been but given the high home prices here, taught in business was to serve the they don’t have the money to buy a shareholder. We extended that to say home. the shareholder is our community, so There is also a whole series of how do we serve the community fiquestions about how the organization nancially? That spawned the concept interacts with its employees, represents of paying dividends as charitable employee needs, and strikes a healthy donations. balance between employee needs, customer needs, and community needs.

BDL: What gives you hope for the [Our] intent to support all those future of our Island community, James Anthony elements is certainly ever-present and environment, and economy?

COURTESY MV BANK very clearly illustrated, I believe. with electric heat pumps which will be JA: I think you see the discussions BDL: What about some sustainability powered by renewable electricity. We happening around affordable housing, projects you’ve undergone or will go completely away from fossil fuels. around the environmental aspects of the environmental initiatives you’ve donated Additionally, we’ve made a number of Island like the toxification of ponds or to on-Island? donations to Island Grown Initiative, the impacts of nitrogen on the Island along with several other donations to ecosystem. The energy in these discussions JA: One of the questions in the B environmental and sustainability groups. is a wonderful indicator of the future.

Corp certification process relates to Where people focus their creative minds a carbon footprint assessment. We BDL: How do some of your personal and innovation, they will make a positive hadn’t conducted one before: we are focuses align with MV Bank and B impact. There is a lot of ground to not a manufacturer, we are not spewing Corps? What are you passionate about? cover; there are a lot of pretty audacious anything into the environment, and we challenges to overcome, but I have a very aren’t creating products that pollute. But JA: I’ve found myself to be an positive outlook on the future of the we do consume electricity and fuel. Doing uncommon combination of traits, Island.

marthasvineyard.

.com 43

TIPS FOR GREENER MV VISITS • ADVICE

MV

LOVE IT? PROTECT IT!

A Guide to Sustainable Travel by the Vineyard Conservation Society

REDUCE! what you need Before you come, please consider the contents of your luggage.

Single use items like plastic water bottles, food items with tons of packaging, and other disposable items become trash we have to ship off island, increasing our carbon footprint. Is there a reusable option for any of these items?

REUSE! what you can Taking the extra minute to grab your reusable water bottle, grocery bags, utensils, straws and more can help to reduce all those single use plastics! VCS has made it easier to refill your water bottle at various locations all over the island!

Scan the QR code for the map of refill stations.

RECYCLE! what you can't reuse Please see the recycling guidelines on reverse.

Tips & Tricks for a Greener MV Bring your own reusable water bottle Bring your own reusable bags when you shop Getting take out? Use reusable containers. Join IslandEatsMV Bring your own mug and skip the straw Donate leftover food to the Island Food Pantry Compost your food scraps with Island Grown Ride the VTA (public bus) or ride your bike Help keep MV's air clean-don't idle your car vineyardconservation.org

44

Bluedot GreenGuide 2 0 2 3 - 2 0 2 4

ADVICE • CLIMATE QUICK TIPS

Instagram and Threads

TT

D

OT

SL

E

LY

Dot has gone social! Find her on

DAI

elcome to Your Daily Dot. Each weekday morning, we’ll send you a Climate Quick Tip — easy advice for Earth-friendly living — and on Saturdays, Dot will answer one of your questions (write her at Deardot@bluedotliving.com). On Sundays, Dot rests.

ER

SI

W

UP FOR O

R U

N G

NEW

@deardot-advice

marthasvineyard.

.com 45

SIX STEPS TO PRESERVING OUR PONDS • ADVICE

What You Can Do Six Steps to Preserving our Ponds

Excess nitrogen in the water feeds algae blooms harmful to wildlife, people, and pets. In 2022, the Great Pond Foundation and the Marine Biological Laboratory sampled the Edgartown and Tisbury Great Ponds, and Chilmark and Crackatuxet Ponds and found that approximately 51 to 58% of the nitrogen comes from wastewater, 21 to 27% from fertilizers, and 17 to 21% from atmospheric sources, with birds typically contributing a miniscule 1% or less. (For details, visit the Great Pond Foundation website.)

What we do on the land affects the nearby water. With the Vineyard’s sandy soils, chemicals and fertilizers leach into our groundwater that flows into our ponds and wells.

into a sweeping meadow. The base of the grassland meadow could be little bluestem grass, butterfly weed, Asters, and other native flowers. Mow winding paths to the water, your garden shed, or pool.

To maintain the meadow, mow high once in the winter/early spring (to protect ground nesting birds), leaving the clippings on the ground to reseed.

and structure over the four seasons.

Ninety percent of the world’s sandplains grasslands are on the Cape and the Islands — let your yard add to this incredible landscape.

You will be rewarded with a world of butterflies, fireflies, songbirds, buzzing bees, and more.

5

Use the resources on-Island

Have a native plant expert from BiodiversityWork’s Natural Neighbors program visit your yard to give you tips on what to plant, how to support wildlife, and native plant kits to buy. Polly Hill Arboretum sells Island native Butterfly Weed plants, as do some nurseries.

Learn about native sandplain grasslands through a Nature Conservancy webinar.

Use landscapers who are familiar with environmentally friendly practices or share these resources with your current landscaper. Support nonprofits that work to keep our ponds healthy.

6

Support land preservation efforts

1

Land is the best buffer to absorb excess nutrients and chemicals that could flow Embrace a lawn that is a into the ponds. Intact native mosaic of more drought landscapes can filter and tolerant grasses, mosses, prevent 75% or more of the and native plants, and is nitrogen from entering our safe for your family. Cut it ponds. Affordable housing to a height of three inches is a critical need on the and leave the clippings on Island and it can go hand-inthe lawn for a natural fertilizer. Don’t Create or leave hand with land preservation efforts, use lawn chemicals or synthetic smart growth, and ecological a vegetative buffer fertilizers; much of this leaches Between the water’s edge and your integrity. Support non-profits that through our sandy soils and ends lawn, leave a large natural vegetative are protecting the unique natural up in the groundwater. Fertilize habitats on our Island. area of 10 to 100+ feet. The root lightly with compost in the fall. For systems will bind the soil preventing –Anne Mazar Vineyard lawn tips, visit the Vineyard erosion, soak up nitrogen, and help Conservation Society website. filter out other contaminants.

Grow a Vineyard lawn

3

2

Reduce your lawn size

4

Try having a small mowed area around the house and maybe an area to play in, but let the rest grow

46

Bluedot GreenGuide 2 0 2 3 - 2 0 2 4

Add MV native plants

Native Vineyard plants need little, if any, watering. They also offer an attractive changing color palette

Anne Mazar is a board member of the Great Pond Foundation and lives alongside the Edgartown Great Pond. See the story of her house, and the restoration of the native sandplain here: bit.ly/Great-Pond-House.

ADVICE • HOW TO LIVE MORE SUSTAINABLY

Betsy Carnie; Odin, Runar Finn, and Ben Robinson near the Barn House in Chilmark.

PHOTO: JEREMY DRIESEN

Advice from Runar Finn and Odin Robinson on how to live more sustainably “Buy No New Stuff. Challenge yourself to buy nothing new for one year. If you need something, try to buy it used locally (Thrift Store, Dumptique —reopening any day now — MVStuff for sale). Or try to borrow/share it. Or consider an alternative. Or go without it. If you’re able to go further to support NoNewStuff, volunteer at the Dumptique or thrift store.” –Odin “Involve yourself in politics whenever you can — from the local to national level. Individual choices only go so far in regulating our consumption and transforming our society. If we really want to change things, we need to focus on collective decisions.” –Runar Finn

marthasvineyard.

.com 47

UPFRONT • IN A WORD RADICAL HOPE • IN A WORD

I

in a word

n the summer of 2005, I sat across a table in a restaurant with my friend. We had just heard that Canada, where we both lived, had legalized gay marriage. My friend had marched, petitioned, lobbied for many years, though he insisted he never planned to marry. “We worked so long for this,” he said. “And then …” He shook his head.

“It’s like it happened overnight.”

I think of that exchange often when I join those working so hard to address the climate crisis. We march, we petition, we lobby. And then … one day, we hear that Harvard has agreed to divest from fossil fuels. That a species is off the endangered list. That renewables are powering entire countries. And though they might seem like small victories, they point to the possible.

By Leslie Garrett

Radical Hope [ rad-i-kuhl hohp ]

They point toward a future that we can’t yet see, can scarcely imagine.

The philosopher Jonathan Lear calls this “radical hope.” Radical hope requires that we summon the ability to imagine solutions, despite what’s happening around us. Radical hope is not to be confused with more passive optimism. As Lear puts it, “Radical hope anticipates a good,” although we may not yet be able to conceive of how that hope will take shape. Radical hope is not the stuff of pithy phrases or bromides, rather it asks us to exhibit courage and

flexibility and a creativity to respond to challenges. To see radical hope in action, look no further than Greta Thunberg, the Sunrise Movement, Indigenous water protectors, and so many others who refuse to give in.

Radical hope is not about ignoring the grief and fear I and, perhaps, you feel as we absorb the magnitude of the climate crisis. But I take courage in the work being done by these activists, young and old — those who, in Lear’s words, “facilitate a creative and appropriate response to the world’s challenges.”

Feeling both the fear and the promise is what radical hope is. It reminds us that our world continues to hold surprises.

Victories that are small until, suddenly, they are big.

SOUTH SHORE PONDS, WINTER, BY SAM MOORE.

What makes a great pond great might be its outsized role in the nature and culture of the Island — as a place where people and creatures gather, where the small Island meets the infinite sea, and where the processes of change that shape sand and life march relentlessly forward.

16

–Sam Moore in the story "In Search of Greatness: Martha's Vineyard's Great Ponds."

48

4 ISSUES Plus OUR GREEN GUIDE TO MV for the introductory rate of $24.95 Mailed directly to you, or as a gift from you.

Subscribe now, and we’ll send you a downloadable collection of Bluedot Kitchen Recipes.

Subscribe at: marthasvineyard.bluedotliving.com/magazine-subscriptions Or, email us at subscriptions@bluedotliving.com

508.645.2628 Chilmark

508.696.9999 West Tisbury

SOUTH SHORE WATER VIEW, DEEDED BEACH, CHILMARK

The 6.1 acre property includes two homes and cottage, open meadows, manicured lawn, beautiful trees, and paths that lead through open meadows to the dock on Chilmark Pond. The historic main house is in lovely condition with three bedrooms and two full baths. The south side of the house has water views over Chilmark Pond to the Atlantic Ocean beach. There is a single-bedroom cottage with a bath as well as a separate guest house with two bedrooms, full bath, kitchen, living room and screened in porch. Additional fun spaces include a garage, a large shed, a private clay tennis court, and deeded access to Chilmark Pond and the south shore barrier beach. Build another home on the property as well as renovate the existing home. A distinctive opportunity in Chilmark that will not disappoint. Exclusively offered at $4,950,000.

An Independent Firm Specializing in Choice Properties for 50 Years 504 State Road, West Tisbury MA 02575 Beetlebung Corner, Chilmark MA 02535

w w w.tea laneassociates.com