Two long-time Island fruit growers have different styles but the same challenges.
By Thomas Humphrey20 PICTURE THIS
Hanging art is easier than you think. Just ask Island experts.
By Louisa Hufstader4
8
Promise me you’ll do one thing to your home or garden this spring that you’ve always wanted to do, or that you’ve been putting off. It doesn’t have to be a big project. Even small improvements can have a big impact. You could simply hang those pictures on the wall that are stacked up in the closet. Now that you’ve got tips from the pros (“Picture This,” page 20), that endeavor won’t be so intimidating, and boy what a difference it makes.
Maybe you want to take a backyard growing class (page 5) and finally build a few raised beds. Or maybe this is the year you plant a fruit tree or two. Long-time Island fruit-growers Rick Karney and Joe Chapman offer hardwon advice (page 17).
In the ambitious department, I must admit I’m once again thinking about the kitchen project we’ve been avoiding. We have a tiny, 30-year-old kitchen with horrible cabinets and countertops. (Yes, it’s that bad.) But after reading Sissy Biggers’s interview with Nina Howell, Vineyard Home Center’s kitchen design guru (page 10), I’m now thinking there may be a way to do this without the angst I’ve anticipated.
I’m game if you are. Let the home improvement projects begin!
- Susie Middleton22
Caroline Tuthill Preserve
EDITOR
Susie Middleton
ART DIRECTOR
Jared Maciel
CONTRIBUTORS
Chris Burrell, Ray Ewing, Laura Holmes Haddad, Louisa Hufstader, Thomas Humphrey, Sissy Biggers
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Monica Brady-Myerov
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Sarah Gifford
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The oldest conservation organization on the Island, the Martha’s Vineyard Garden Club, is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year with a slate of events. A plant sale will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on May 25 and May 26 at the historic Old Mill in West Tisbury. From June 14 to 16, the Old Mill will host the annual Blooming Art show, where garden club members pair flower arrangements with works by Island artists. Tickets are $15. On July 25, the club will hold its Edgartown Stroll, giving participants access to five private gardens – including the garden at the Emily Post house for the first time. Tickets are $60. For more information, visit marthasvineyardgardenclub.org.
If this is your year to get growing, don’t miss the upcoming workshop on backyard garden planning organized by the Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society and held at the West Tisbury Public Library on Thursday, May 9, from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. It’s free — no registration required. If you can’t make that, you’ll want to sign up for the free community newsletter (there’s one just for commercial farmers too) from the Ag Society. It’s packed with helpful information and news of upcoming events, including workshops on compost, biochar and beekeeping. Visit marthasvineyardagriculturalsociety.org/ newsletter-signup.
Want to get your kids involved in gardening? Slough Farm in Edgartown is holding a five-week after-school class on Wednesdays, April 24 – May 22, for kids ages 7 to 12. There will be time in the greenhouse and the garden, and kids should come prepared to get dirty. Visit sloughfarm.org to register.
Looking to wake up your palate and your garden? Islanders have you covered.
That’s Hot! Jimmy and Rachel Alvarado of TigerHawk Sandwich Co. in Oak Bluffs are now bottling their own TigerHawk Pineapple-Habanero Hot Sauce. Our tasters loved it. A little bit sweet and a lot hot, it would be great on chicken tacos or egg sandwiches. Available in 8 oz. and 16 oz. bottles at the shop, as well as Edgartown Meat & Fish, Cozy Corner, the Net Result and Rosewater Market.
Digging It. If you didn’t dig up your dahlia tubers last fall, or you’re a firsttime dahlia grower, no problem. You can start dahlia plants from tubers sold at Island nurseries. Or wait a few weeks and buy already-started plants.
Mary Wirtz at Middletown Nursery in West Tisbury cultivates a beautiful variety of dahlias that will be for sale and on display in their dahlia garden.
Spring is the time to prep your summer garden, but if you’re tired of planting every year, gardener Roxanne Kapitan of Garden Wisdom has a tip and some recommendations for you:
“Perennialize your edible garden. Perennial plants have a smaller carbon footprint than annuals, and require less water, fertilizer and upkeep. My top picks are asparagus, sorrel, sea kale, Myoga ginger, walking onions and perpetual spinach.”
From the chef who brought us a mobile pizza oven comes a new, decidedly sweeter mobile food operation. Chef Nina Levin of Stoney Hill Pizza debuted her new pastry trailer, Ophelia, at the Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival this winter, serving up jelly roll cake, peanut butter bonbons and sea salt brownies.
Ophelia will now be a fixture at the West Tisbury Farmers’ Market this summer. But don’t worry, the pizza oven will still be there too. Nina also offers catering services for private events. For more information, visit stoneyhillpizza.com.
I’ve never had much of a green thumb. It could be because my thumbs are too busy turning the pages of the ever-growing stacks of books that sprout like beautiful weeds anywhere I plant myself. Amid the abundance this season are some exciting new-old plant and garden books that should delight any reader, seeder, or weeder, no matter the color of their thumbs.
Recently re-released, Gardener’s Folklore: The Ancient Secrets for Gardening Magic by Margaret Baker (David & Charles), originally published in 1976, is compiled from letters sent by gardeners to the author, who was known for her focus on the folklore and customs of rural communities in the United Kingdom and United States.
Coming in May is a collaboration between lauded writer Jamaica
Kincaid and influential visual artist
Kara Walker. An Encyclopedia of Gardening for Colored Children (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux) is an inventive, informative and beautifully illustrated abecedarium that explores “intersections of the plant world with history, race, mythology, colonial appropriation and independence.”
And finally, reaching even further back in history, the lovely little Healing Plants: From Elizabeth Blackwell’s “Curious Herbal” edited by Marta McDowell (Abbeville Press), is a miniature treasury of 140 descriptions and hand-colored engravings of medicinal plants, drawn from the pioneering eighteenth-century work of artist Elizabeth Blackwell. Here’s to a spring of abundance and beauty!
Molly Coogan is co-owner of Bunch of Grapes Bookstore.
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Grabbing a burger and a beer is one thing; enjoying a burger, a bourbon, and handmade potato chips is next level. And we can now do all three at The Attic, a restaurant and bar in the former La Soffitta space (above Waterside Market) in Vineyard Haven. Completely renovated and reopened in June 2023, the space is modern and cozy with a distinctive speakeasy vibe. The space is split in half: one half is a large bar area, the other is a cozy dining area with soft lighting. There are windows throughout as well.
Owned by Stephen and Susan Bowen, the Attic is part of their Just One Bite Restaurant Group that includes Waterside Market and Fish MV. Chef Bill Hart heads up the kitchen. The menu is extensive, with starters and salads, entrées, a kid’s menu, and their
wildly delicious burgers, all served by a very welcoming front of house team. Linger over the craft cocktail (and mocktail) menu, and take note that the Attic has the largest bourbon collection on the Vineyard.
With something for everyone, the Attic is perfect for every occasion: family night, date night, a birthday celebration, or just a Thursday night with friends. The Attic is open yearround too, making it a great change of scenery during the winter doldrums. And this time of year, they run dinner specials Sunday through Tuesday, as well as half-priced appetizers daily from 4 to 6 p.m. (dine-in only).
Though it’s hard to narrow down favorites on the menu, we’ve come up with a list of five favorites we think you don’t want to miss (see next page).
From crispy Brussels sprouts to smash burgers, from cocktails (and mocktails) to an extensive collection of bourbons and other whiskey, the Attic has something for everyone.
1. MAC & CHEESE ($18)
Comfort food is only comforting when it’s done right, and the Attic has mastered mac & cheese. I prefer the old-school classic — creamy and topped with crunchy breadcrumbs — but you can add one of five extras to make it next-level (short ribs or lobster, anyone?).
2. HOISIN GLAZED SALMON RICE BOWL ($32)
Choosing a lighter menu option can sometimes feel less satisfying, but not at the Attic. Their rice bowl is bursting with flavor and texture: lightly sauced salmon, creamy avocado, fluffy rice, and fresh veggies. It’s a go-to for any time of year.
3. ATTIC SMASH BURGER ($22)
There are plenty of burgers on the Island, but this is hands-down my favorite. Perfectly seasoned and surrounded by a fluffy brioche bun, topped with “special sauce,” you’ll need more than one napkin before the meal is over. Be sure to get the hand-cut fries along with it.
4. CRISPY SWEET CHILI BRUSSEL SPROUTS ($16)
I can’t pass up a plate of these sweet and perfectly spiced lightly-fried Brussels sprouts. Be ready to fight over the last one!
5. ROASTED BEET SALAD ($16)
What makes this beet salad so delicious is the dollop of whipped goat cheese and the local honey drizzled on top. It’s the perfect way to kick off a meal.
BONUS: The best bourbon collection on the Island.
Creating a kitchen with that quintessential Vineyard vibe is much easier with an experienced kitchen designer. And behind many admired Island kitchens is design guru Nina Howell of Vineyard Home Center. A fine arts major and jewelry maker, Nina brought her talent to the realm of kitchen design when she and her family moved to the Vineyard fulltime 14 years ago. Through her work at Vineyard Home Center, Nina has cultivated invaluable partnerships with contractors and clients. And in mastering the art of creating kitchens, she has helped Vineyard Home Center win top honors in the Best Kitchen Design category of Martha’s Vineyard
Magazine’s Best of the Vineyard contest for five consecutive years.
Q. Tell me about the Vineyard Design Center tucked inside the vast Vineyard Home Center.
A. We have a lumber yard, a hardware store and we sell windows and doors — everything for homebuilding and renovation. And here in the middle of it all is the design center, where we focus on cabinetry, hardware, countertops and backsplashes. All of the materials come into our sister company, Hinckley Home Center on the Cape, and two times a week we truck them over here without adding the extra shipping which you might incur with Cape Cod Express.
Q. I have to mention that you are part of five generations of the artistic Moore family on the Island. Your brother Alley is an art director and your brother Andrew is a fine artist.
A. That’s why I always leave space for art when designing a kitchen! Our mom was an artist and high school art teacher and my dad was an architect. Growing up, we always had art projects going on. My interests were soft sculpture out of fabric and jewelry. I learned a lot from my dad who used to take me to jobsites to see the designs he was working on. For me, kitchen design just clicked.
Q. What is the role of the Vineyard kitchen in contemporary home design?
A. It’s a gathering spot for sure. And in general, people want to keep things simple with clean lines. Most clients are pretty clear that they want it to
look different from their off-Island home. When I help clients who live here, they want that same clean look — glass doors, open shelving. With open shelving, I like the look, but I always caution about the dust — especially if you have renters. It’s not that practical.
Q. Good tip, but too late for me! To achieve this simple and clean design, is there a specific material to which you steer your clients?
A. I would say it’s more a discussion about the look of the cabinets – raised panel versus flat panel. The raised panel is more decorative, but most tend to go towards a flat panel door. There’s lots of different options for a flat panel with simple trims.
Q. What kind of hardware statement do you suggest on simple flat panel cabinetry?
A. People do all sorts of things. That’s where they kind of have fun!
Q. Is the customer usually right when they’re having so much fun?
A. The customer’s always right. I guide — always give my opinion — but they don’t have to take it.
Q. Is there a more eco-friendly trend in cabinetry manufacturing and materials?
A. The finishes in the paint are much more durable and eco-friendly. They’ve come a long way with that.
Q. Let’s talk about new cabinets versus refurbishing existing cabinets. In the end does it cost just as much to do new cabinets?
A. My advice is if you are happy with your layout exactly as it is and if the guts of your cabinets are in good shape — the boxes and the door glides — then it’s possible. If you want to start changing the layout, it doesn’t make any sense. If your cabinets are in good shape, you can paint them and put in a new countertop and knobs and pulls and you’d be happy.
Q. What’s another strategy for saving money in a kitchen project?
A. There are all sorts of ways to save money. There are different door styles for sure. Someone will just love a style and then there is one that is slightly different and it’s going to be a whole two levels down in pricing.
Q. What about with countertops?
A. Same thing. If our vendors stock the countertop, then it’s going to be so much less than a special-order item. Again, if they say they love this counter, I ask, "Could you fall in love with this one (a stocked item)?" I guide them to some choices to help them save some money for sure.
Q. What’s a good direction in the stocked countertops? What’s your favorite?
A. There’s granite, natural quartz and marble, and I love natural stone, but it’s just not as durable and can be a little busy. There are a lot of manmade [engineered] quartz products which are non-porous and don’t stain. Great for rentals and if you just want a calm look.
Q. I got excited about a trendy color choice when we did our kitchen, and three years later I’m not seeing that color (gray!) in the design magazines.
A. I’m not a huge trend follower for that reason – I just think it’s going to go out.
I would prefer that the clients think about what their favorite colors are and what they want to use in their house. If you are going through magazines and you do see something that you love, then great, but don’t Google today’s trendiest color and go with that!
Q. Is there a cabinet color that’s always a good bet?
A. White. There are a lot of whites. I have a favorite, frosty white, from Executive Cabinetry, which is just a step down from white-white, a little bit warmer and goes with a bunch of different countertops. You can put color in the details in decorative items, utensils or paintings, or in the backsplash where there are so many choices.
Q. What’s your advice when it comes to storage solutions?
A. When I’m designing, I always like the client to take the design plan home to their kitchen and mark it up and see if they need more space for utensils or trays or bowls. Everyone is so different in how they store things, so it’s a good exercise. A microwave built into the hood with a fan is also a good solution for small kitchens. I love small beverage fridges in the kitchen island. Where the coffee machine is going to go is an essential discussion to have.
Q. How does the contractor-client relationship work?
A. Most of my clients are sent to me by my contractors, and we go through
the design books together. Then I do my own site measurement and design using a program which has all the companies so I can pull in all the different cabinet choices.
Q. If I started this spring when would I see a new kitchen?
A. April is like the worst time to start a project unless you want a kitchen in the fall. If you want a kitchen in the summer start in the fall. The cabinetry production takes seven to 12 weeks. With all the back and forth, plan for at least three months.
Q. How many kitchens are in production right now?
A. I probably have 15 kitchens in
different stages. It used to be busy in the spring and busy in the fall and not as much in the summer and the winter, but those lines are blurring.
Q. Finally, what’s your kitchen like?
A. It’s white with a quartz counter. I do have a lot of great artwork. With a few artists in the family, that’s easy. But the smartest thing we did was a bay window; for a small kitchen, it just opens it out. I have a different counter on the bay window than I do in the kitchen as an accent.
Sissy Biggers is a regular contributor to the Vine and a frequent contributor to Martha’s Vineyard Magazine.
Kitchens featuring mostly white cabinetry are popular on the Vineyard for their clean, coastal, timeless appeal. Nina Howell of Vineyard Home Center recommends starting with white and adding pops of color through artwork, backsplashes, countertops and perhaps a different color for the cabinetry on an island. Photos by Nina Howell.
Explore the 72-acre horticultural and historical Island landmark.
Be inspired by the globally recognized plant collections.
Learn from the classes, programs and tours.
Grounds open sunrise to sunset year-round. Visitor Center & Plant Sales open seasonally. 795 State Road, West Tisbury | pollyhillarboretum.org | 508-693-9426
Even on an Island packed with highcaliber gardeners and backyard farmers, orchardists stand alone as a rarified breed.
From bark-destroying fungus to ravenous squirrels to the endless demands of yearly pruning and maintenance, fruit-tree growers on Martha’s Vineyard have the odds stacked against them. And yet, despite all the challenges of our New England climate, a stalwart few manage to bring in a bountiful and sugary harvest from their trees each year.
But not all local fruit growers go about things the same way, and when it comes to Island orchardists, you would
be hard-pressed to find two with more different approaches than Rick Karney and Joe Chapman.
At his West Tisbury home, Rick’s orchard has an English country garden temperament: rambling, lush, loosely organized. Meanwhile in Chilmark, Joe’s garden adheres more closely to the Versailles model: geometric, manicured, meticulously planned.
Despite their differences, both gardeners face many of the same challenges, and both agree that fruit growing on the Island is no small feat.
“Very seldom do I get a totally beautiful apple,” Rick said, on a recent tour of his garden in early
spring, just as he began pruning for the season. Now in his fourth decade of orcharding, Rick admits that his practices are not always as rigorous as they used to be, but his garden is still substantially productive.
“I bought this property in 1980, and back then, living off the land, all that stuff was hot,” the Martha’s Vineyard Shellfish Group’s director emeritus said. “This was all scrub oak, and the idea was to put in a food forest.”
Now in place of the dense, scraggy scrub oaks that once crowded his property, an open field of apple, pear, persimmon and cherry trees stands. The orchard, he said, is great not just for its produce, but for its aesthetic quality.
“When the trees flower, it’s really outrageous,” he said. “The fragrance and the color, it’s just beautiful.”
Though pears are a well-known, low-maintenance option for beginning Vineyard fruit-growers, other fruit trees are infamously difficult to care for. Number one on the list of tasks to make for a good harvest, Joe said, is pruning.
“You pick your main limbs, you try to work from there,” said Joe, describing the ideal hourglass figure that allows proper light and airflow for apple and stone fruit branch systems. This structural approach to pruning, which requires branches to be either cut or tied up to the trunk for support, is perfect for Joe, who has made his career in the building business.
“It’s all about shaping the trees. I want them to look architecturally nice too,” he said.
After establishing a fruit tree’s basic shape while it’s young, Joe said, much of each year’s pruning is occupied by taking off a tree’s many upward growing suckers, while also removing heavy limb sections which threaten to fall.
But as a fruit tree grows into maturity, Rick pointed out that the gardener also has to be mindful of diseases and pests taking over certain branches.
“It’s just been so wet this last year, and you get a lot of rot,” he said, surveying one of his apple trees that had picked up a fungal infection during the recent rains. If a large limb ends up getting a fungal infection bad enough to split the bark, Rick said, it is time to go into tree triage mode.
“Cut the stuff out as best you can, and try to burn it,” he said, with fire being the best way to prevent further spread to the rest of the garden.
With the volume of pests that flock to fruit trees, both men said that yearly pesticide spraying is almost essential for a fruit crop, but organic options are available and effective. Joe, for instance, uses a sulfur-based spray.
Other, larger garden pests are less easily deterred.
For Rick, squirrels have been one of the biggest predators in recent years. Though the critters are not interested in the apples themselves, a hungry squirrel will dig into the fruit in order to eat its seeds.
The best way to combat the squirrels, Rick said, is to give them an alternate food source. Whenever he has a well-stocked birdfeeder, he said,
religiously,” he said.
For Joe, the most irritating small mammals are rabbits, which have a nasty habit of nibling at the base of his trees to get access to sweet sap.
“It’s like maple syrup,” he said, “and the rabbits, they smell that and they girdle the trees to get to that sugar.” The base of every tree in Joe’s orchard is protected by a circle of chicken wire.
Deer, too, are always a problem, and both orchardists have erected heavy fortifications to keep them from munching on fruit and buds. Last year, though, Rick said that his big Concord grape yield compelled the deer to be a bit more aggressive than usual and push through the fence.
“Once they got in there, it was a nightmare,” he said.
Despite the fact that both men have well-established orchards, their experimentation continues.
Rick has now spread beyond conventional New England species. He has a semi-regular fig harvest from
of an American persimmon nursery, with well-established trees regularly shooting up new saplings. He grows pawpaws too.
Up in Chilmark, meanwhile, Joe is following up the success of his white peaches (sold each summer at North Tisbury Farm) by planting another stone fruit — plum trees. He also grows nectarines in addition to pears, apples and grapes. And he has begun to experiment with rooting branch cuttings.
With the proliferation of trees across his orchard, he said, each one requires its own, special attention.
“Not every tree is the same,” he said, and a prospective orchardist would do well to learn from and spend time with every one of them.
Thomas Humphrey is a reporter for the Vineyard Gazette.
Source: Jardin Mahoney in Oak Bluffs carries a large variety of fruit trees and blueberry bushes.
Hanging art is easier than you think. Just ask some of the Island’s experts.
BY LOUISA HUFSTADER • PHOTOS BY RAY EWINGBy the end of a long New England winter, a lot of us are getting more than a little tired of looking at the same old walls, with their paintings and prints that have grown so familiar we barely notice them anymore.
Meanwhile, new pieces from art shows, craft fairs and galleries are propped in a corner, unhung and unseen.
With spring bringing the urge to refresh, now’s an ideal time to change up your home art collection — giving newer acquisitions a chance to shine, while rehanging old favorites so they
once again catch the eye.
“You have to be brave about it. You can’t be timid,” said Nancy Vietor of Edgartown, an artist and longtime interior designer who is writing a book about the secrets of her trade.
Nancy has a number of practical tips for home-dwellers who may be a little intimidated by the tasks of positioning and installing their artworks, especially in a new or remodeled home where all the walls are bare.
To begin, she said, decide first what to put in which part of the house:
family photos in a hallway, kids’ art in the playroom and seascapes in a study or living room, perhaps.
Choosing where on the walls they’ll go is a matter of personal taste, but scale is a crucial consideration.
“If you have a tiny painting over a big sofa, it’s going to look silly. There’s no way around it,” Nancy said.
Large spaces don’t necessarily call for large artworks, however. Collectors and curators Monina von Opel and Ed Miller, who have hung more than 1,000 pieces of art at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital and countless more in private
homes, like to group smaller pieces together on a wall.
Monina and Ed begin by laying out the pieces on a clean floor or carpet, often after dinner at the home of friends who’ve asked for their help.
“For dessert, we hang up the art,” Monina said.
Arrangements work best when the edges of the grouping are as straight as a single frame would be, she said. But within that space, she and Ed often will vary the artwork with different sizes, subjects and frames.
“We like to mix things, so it can be
an 18th-century something or other with a modern-day something you’ve picked up at a market somewhere, or some little holiday treasure that you found. One thing can enhance the other,” Monina said.
But that’s not a hard rule for the couple, who recently purchased two of Island photographer Libby Ellis’s black and white flower portraits to display together – and then went back for a third, because two weren’t quite enough.
“Uneven numbers are better,” Monina said.
The important thing, she said, is to let the artwork itself — and not the home decorating scheme — lead the way.
“It’s not decoration. It’s part of your life. It’s like a visual diary,” Monina said.
“Things catch your eye, [and] where
you find them and whether it goes with anything else is beside the point. If we decide it’s going to go, it goes,” she said.
That includes in bathrooms, hallways and even the laundry room of your home, Monina added.
Monina and Teresa Kruszewski, a photographer and framer who owns 51Art Gallery in Vineyard Haven, both cautioned against choosing art specifically for décor purposes.
“My skin crawls when somebody says, ‘I’ve got this space, this will work perfectly there,’ versus buying the piece because they like the art,” Teresa said.
Nancy said she’s designed rooms to highlight the artwork, but never the other way around.
“Please don’t match your couch,” she said.
Another pitfall is the tendency
A stairwell (top) or a bathroom (above) are perfect places for hanging multiple pieces of art. Let what you love lead the way — don't worry about "decorating" the space. When you've chosen your pieces, lay them out on a floor to design your groupings before hanging.
to hang artwork too high, requiring viewers to crane their necks.
Ed, who stands well over six feet tall, said he makes sure the top of a frame is at or below his eye level. A good rule of thumb for the rest of us is to position the midpoint of a piece, or a grouping, between 57 and 60 inches measured from the floor (and to take the measurement in more than one place, since it’s a rare floor that lies completely flat).
The most technical aspects of hanging are also the simplest, according to David Hannon of David Hannon Fine Art Services in Vineyard Haven, who has 30 years of experience with galleries, museums and private clients.
“Rule number one: It can’t fall off,” David said. In other words, picture hooks should be sized to match the weight of the pieces they’ll support.
Rule number two — endorsed by all five of the experts we spoke with
— is to use two hooks for each piece, measuring in from the frame to space them evenly.
“It never gets crooked,” said David, who works with Island homeowners to display their collections of art and family photographs.
Along with hooks, wire, measuring tape and a hammer, a leveling device — whether the old-fashioned spirit level or its electronic counterpart — is a must, especially in older homes where floors and ceilings may have sagged with the years, Teresa said.
Whether you use your own tools, borrow a friend’s or hire David to do the whole thing, keep in mind that you can move artwork around and add new pieces any time.
“Don’t be afraid. If you hate it, you can change it,” Monina said.
Louisa Hufstader is senior writer for the Vineyard Gazette.
Do:
• Mix styles, sizes and types of art.
• Lay out groupings on the floor before hanging them on the wall.
• Measure at least twice before hammering in the nails.
• Use two hooks and a level to make sure your pictures are hanging straight.
• Enlist a helper for larger jobs.
• Horizontally align your artwork to floors or ceilings, which may not be level.
• Hang art too high on the wall; aim for the piece’s midpoint to be no more than five feet high.
• Buy art to match your furnishings.
• Use the same frame style for everything.
• Chicken out and leave your artwork unhung.
You would never realize there is a glorious oakand pine-preserve of almost 150 acres just a short distance from downtown Edgartown. The Caroline Tuthill Preserve, a Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation property, is a triangle of land between Edgartown–Vineyard Haven Road and Beach Road, with Sengekontacket Pond to the north. If you park at the trailhead on Edgartown–Vineyard Haven Road, you can walk the yellow trail through the forest to the shores of Sengekontacket. Continue on the yellow trail to circle back, or take the blue trail spur to Beach Road. If you’re into mountain biking, the hilly purple trail is maintained just for you. Visit sheriffsmeadow.org for more information, and while you’re there, download the TrailsMV app.
Dinner Wednesday - Saturday
Brunch on Sundays
63 Circuit Ave. Oak Bluffs (508) 696-0200
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Designing in cooperation with Biodiversity works to preserve and enhance the natural beauty and native habitats of the Vineyard.
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SWEET AND SOUR. When Manny Duarte purchase his cranberry bog off Lambert’s Cove Road in West Tisbury in 1940, a 100-pound barrel of cranberries went for $32. By the time he sold the bog in 1965, the price had dropped to $5. The bog is now owned by the Vineyard Open Land Foundation.
TREE APPRECIATION. Twenty-six volunteers from the newly formed Oak Bluffs Tree Stewards gathered to plant 10 new, native trees in Niantic, Nashawena and Wesleyan parks this October. The group has plans for another planting this spring.
20
Christmas trees were donated, then devoured, by goats at Native Earth Teaching Farm last year.
11,000
Acres of habitat burned in a 1916 wildfire on the Island.
HEATING UP. Chappaquiddick, Aquinnah and eastern Edgartown were bumped up to USDA plant hardiness zone 7b this year, with an average minimum temperature now coming in between 5° and 10° F each winter. The rest of the Island remains in zone 7a.
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BOTANICAL BEAUTY. Mytoi, the only Japanese-style garden on the Vineyard, encompasses 14 acres of Chappaquiddick property. The garden was created in 1958 by Edgartown architect Hugh Jones, inspired by his military service in Japan.
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State endangered species live among scrub oaks at the Nature Conservancy’s Medicine Lots preserve.
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Different species of trees will be planted around West Tisbury's town center to increase tree diversity.
