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THE LATEST ISLAND NEWS

Morning Glory Farm, started in 1975 by James and Deborah Athearn, grows about 65 acres
of vegetables and small fruits on the island of Martha’s Vineyard.

Small successive plantings of a wide variety of crops supply the farmstand
from May through December.

Going Organic in Edible Vineyard

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Growing Your Best Tomatoes Ever

“You say tomato, I say disaster.” If that’s you talking at the end of every summer, help is on the way. It’s so discouraging when our best efforts at growing tomatoes fail to produce great results.

Flower to the People

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I’ll Meet You at the Fair

The Martha’s Vineyard Livestock Show and Fair is more than a lot of fun and games. Though, of course, it is also a heck of a lot of fun and games.

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Getting Their Hands Dirty

A day in the life on Morning Glory Farm.

Sophie Perry, 20, is living on Martha’s Vineyard for the summer. She swims in the ocean at South Beach every day, wears big funky earrings, and has a deep suntan. 

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They’re Back! A Tomato Tale

Just so you know, my mortgage is not going to be lifted by my Mortgage Lifter tomato. Mr. Critter snuck into the garden and helped himself to the first ripe heirloom as well as a few Early Girls, too.

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Aw, Shucks! The Sweet Corn Challenge

We’ve got 90 days of local sweet corn; why not eat it every day? A few years ago in the pages of Martha’s Vineyard magazine, I proposed a challenge: to eat fresh sweet corn every day for as long as it is available. 

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Best of the Vineyard 2019: Food and Drink

Everything you need to know about food and drink on Martha’s Vineyard according to you.

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Plan A Zero-Waste Wedding and the Planet will Thank You

Plan a zero-waste wedding and the planet will thank you. We all know weddings can get expensive and excessive. As a wedding photographer on Martha’s Vineyard, I see firsthand just how lavish these events can be. 

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Creative Process Feeds on Island Love

Sunlight streamed through the large windows of Ashley Medowski’s studio Monday morning in West Tisbury. Ms. Medowski sat by her easel, brows furrowed over a painting, contemplating her next move.

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Paper Straws Drink Up Renewed Popularity

How big of a difference can one straw make?
Many Island restaurants and eateries have joined a growing movement by offering environmentally friendly paper straws in an attempt to curb the use of plastic straws.

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Indy Power: Mexican-inspired BBQ corn is a crowd pleaser

This is a family favorite and such an easy way to elevate corn at a barbecue. Prepare for the corn to be picked clean!

Serves 4. Gluten-free, vegan option

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Best of Martha’s Vineyard 2018 Best Farm Market or Stand
(2017, 2016, 2015 … )

The results are in, here is everything you need to know about food and drinks on Martha’s Vineyard according to you.

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Mobile Market Hits the Road for Second Summer

For the second year in a row, a truck-based produce market will be making the rounds of Martha’s Vineyard neighborhoods five afternoons a week, laden with locally-grown vegetables, fruits and eggs at below-retail prices.

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Berried treasures

Plan a zero-waste wedding and the planet will thank you. We all know weddings can get expensive and excessive. As a wedding photographer on Martha’s Vineyard, I see firsthand just how lavish these events can be. 

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Gold Medal, Best of Martha’s Vineyard 2018

Sunlight streamed through the large windows of Ashley Medowski’s studio Monday morning in West Tisbury. Ms. Medowski sat by her easel, brows furrowed over a painting, contemplating her next move.

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Martha’s Vineyard Up-Island Travel Guide

Martha’s Vineyard: Up-Island.
When you’ve had one too many Mad Martha’s ice cream cones, ditch the crowds and catch an ocean breeze on the laid-back side of the Vineyard.

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Top 5 Local Farms on Martha’s Vineyard + What to buy there.

Farming on Martha’s Vineyard is a family affair, most farms owned by local island families for years. Because of the terroir and climate, island farms focus on a few specific regional produce items, but work well together to supplement each other.

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The Local Ingredient: Turnip time

Turnips in general seem to be a pretty neglected vegetable in the U.S., except on the Cape, Islands, and Southeastern Massachusetts, where there are some pretty delicious varieties, as well as interesting histories.

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Pie, Oh My!

My love affair with pie didn’t start at the dinner table, but in the kitchen with my mother. We spent many a night before Thanksgiving together…

Take Out, Pop Up, Dine In

Plan a zero-waste wedding and the planet will thank you. We all know weddings can get expensive and excessive. As a wedding photographer on Martha’s Vineyard, I see firsthand just how lavish these events can be. 

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 Celebrating 40 under 40

Sunlight streamed through the large windows of Ashley Medowski’s studio Monday morning in West Tisbury. Ms. Medowski sat by her easel, brows furrowed over a painting, contemplating her next move. Rows of small paint brushes were lined up by the window, and paint tubes were piled in a bucket on the floor behind her.

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Five Reasons to Explore Edgartown This Fall

Historic charm, harbor views, and the Martha’s Vineyard Food & Wine Festival are just some of the many reasons to explore Edgartown this fall.

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Ten things to do during the shoulder season

With September comes a breath of fresh air — there are suddenly empty parking spaces exactly where you need them

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Good Work, Well Done: Sharing the Bounty

Ever wonder what kids who get free or reduced-price lunch eat during summer vacation? Island Grown Initiative did.

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Second Act (recipe)

I was strolling through the West Tisbury Farmers’ Market with my two hot and sticky little boys in tow when we stopped to chat with our friend Meg, who manages one of the produce stands. 

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Farmers Wanted: Preserving Island Land With Agriculture

Across the country, farmland is disappearing forever at a rapid rate — about 40 acres an hour, according to American Farmland Trust president John Piotti.

Morning Glory Farm Celebrates Strawberry Season

It’s finally time to enjoy a bountiful strawberry harvest. Last Saturday, Morning Glory Farm celebrated the season’s arrival with plenty of berries to go around.

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What to see and do on Martha’s Vineyard, straight from a local

Need a lively beach, a secluded one, or one with tame waves? How about a tasty meal or some hyperlocal brew? A Vineyard native sorts it out for you.

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Morning Glory Farm reopens Friday — but will there be asparagus?

Spring is here, and that means that Morning Glory Farm is back in business for the season. Traditionally the farm opens on the first Friday in May, which means this Friday, May 5.

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Handling Food Waste Locally to Create a More Sustainable Martha’s Vineyard

Nationwide, household food waste accounts for 27 million tons a year, and businesses like restaurants and grocers add another 25 million tons.

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Islanders come together to provide holiday dinners for families in need

In the holiday spirit of giving, Family to Family provided more than 200 families with food at the First Baptist Church in Vineyard Haven last Friday.

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Island Grown Schools replicates Thomas Jefferson garden contest

Vineyard school kids participated in an Island-wide, cross-curricular competition to be the first to fill a cup with shelled peas.

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What to Do on Martha’s Vineyard This Summer

Coming to Martha’s Vineyard for a day, or for an extended stay? Whether you’re landing at Oak Bluffs or Vineyard Haven, the first thing you’re liable to encounter is a quaint downtown shopping center, either on Circuit Ave or Main Street.

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Composting on the Coast: An Island Grapples with Food Waste

On an early morning this week, Sakiko Isomichi sat behind the wheel of a large pickup truck, making her daily rounds to a handful of Island restaurants that have begun sending food waste to Morning Glory Farm.

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Crops are Fashionably Early on Island

The first cut of hay was two weeks early, garlic is already being harvested across the Island and strawberries are likely to be done before it’s time for a July 4 pie.

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Local Ingredient: Morning Glory Farm spearheads the asparagus harvest 

Morning Glory Farm picked its first asparagus spears this week, signaling a start to the local growing season and a rush to enjoy this fleeting spring specialty. 

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Island Farmers Spring Into Action as Weather Warms

As the days lengthen and the weather grows even milder, farmers around the Island are pulling out their potting soil, clearing greenhouses and seeding their crops. But they are also watching the weather closely before taking to the fields to avoid a late killing frost.

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Local Ingredient: Honeynut Squash

Need a lively beach, a secluded one, or one with tame waves? How about a tasty meal or some hyperlocal brew? A Vineyard native sorts it out for you.

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Family Portrait: The Athearns

If Jim and Debbie Athearn had a theme song about running Morning Glory Farm for 40 years, it would be one recorded by Maria Muldaur in 1973 called “Long Hard Climb”:

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 The Pickles’ Republic

Forget everything you think you know about soggy green wafers of something resembling cucumbers.

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Where Nothing is Wasted, Island Gleaners are Winter Wonders

In 2014 we rescued more produce than ever before — almost 25,000 pounds! And mild weather kept us gleaning later than ever into December. 

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A smashing good time at Morning Glory Farm Pumpkin Festival

Islanders flocked to Morning Glory Farm in Edgartown last Saturday, October 18, for the annual Morning Glory Pumpkin Festival. 

Farm to Cookbook for Do-It-Yourself Dining

It was a recipe that could melt any parent’s heart.

Start with six ingredients — tomatoes, sea salt, extra virgin olive oil, unfiltered apple cider vinegar, raw honey and Dijon mustard. 

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Abundant Harvest Keeps Gleaners Busy Assisting Islanders in Need

A group of about 15 volunteers gather at the edge of the peach orchard just past the farmstand parking lot of Morning Glory Farm. Some stomp their feet to ward off the early morning chill. Jamie O’Gorman hands one volunteer a T-shirt.

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Vineyard Inside Out: Culinary Paradise Outside the Break Room

While shoppers at Morning Glory Farm amble about in slow motion, being seduced by brightly colored displays of fresh produce and aromatic baked goods, just inside the kitchen door there is a carry-in/carry-out, wash-and-sort frenzy of activity. 

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Get it While it Lasts, Meat is Going Fast

A crowd hovered at the entrance gate to the West Tisbury Farmers’ Market on Saturday morning, as workers from Morning Glory Farm unloaded 32 bushels of corn intended for sale at the farm’s market booth. The market didn’t open for another 10 minutes, but this crowd was armed and ready, with tote bags and baskets as their weapons of choice.

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Agriculture Commissioner Declares Island Farms a Model

On any given summer afternoon, the stand at Morning Glory Farm in Edgartown is bustling. Shoppers leave with large totes of fresh vegetables, still warm from being picked just across the street. 

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Robyn & Simon

Ceremony: First Congregational Church
Reception: Morning Glory Farm. There was one more crop to plant on the morning of Robyn Hosey and Simon Athearn’s spring wedding. 

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Many options to find Christmas trees on Martha’s Vineyard

It’s beginning to look a whole lot like Christmas around the Vineyard, and not just because of the twinkling lights and decorated store windows. 

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Two generations of Athearns, Simon and father, Jim.

Deed Restricted for a Farming Future

That’s what Simon Athearn and his wife, Robyn, are envisioning for their first spring garden next year in their new house in West Tisbury.

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Ask the Experts: Gardening with Manure

If you ask any farmer or gardener on Martha’s Vineyard, they’ll tell you that manure is one of our most precious resources. The seven most readily available kinds of manure here – cow, horse, sheep, goat, pig, chicken, rabbit – are discussed as if they’re the seven wonders of the Island.

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Island Farms Cultivate Grass Roots Awareness Among Young Employees

Farming on Martha’s Vineyard has become more than a just a career path for a few determined individuals whose parents were farmers. 

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Smiling from Ear to Ear

There was an extra level of urgency at Morning Glory Farm on Saturday morning as two corn pickers worked their way through rows of corn plants in the Edgartown field. 

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The Age of Asparagus

Island-grown spring shoots are a culinary delight this time of year. Whether to buy thick or thin asparagus is a common question. Some might assume thinner spears are younger and therefore more tender. 

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 Morning Glory Farm Zucchini Bread

Recipe reprinted from Morning Glory Farm and the Family That Feeds an Island by Tom Dunlop. This appeared in the Spring 2011 issue of Cape Cod HOME.

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Same Great Pumpkin Festival, New Generation at Morning Glory

When customers walk into the Morning Glory Farm standoff Meshacket Road in the outskirts of Edgartown, there is something homey about the scene, a feast for the senses. 

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A Look Back at Summer Harvest

As the last week of August and first week of September are upon us, there is no getting around the crisp smell of soil in the air, the slight crunch under your feet as leaves begin to drop, and the light that has been so heavy yet soft over the past few months is beginning to mellow. 

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Hay There

There’s something romantic about hay bales dotting the rolling fields of the Vineyard at this time of year, those magical, large pillows that decorate the landscape. And then there’s the smell. Crisp, soft, sweet, it fills the senses…

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Strawberry Stains Forever

Their hands were stained red, their backs a little sore, but the smell of strawberries, as though you had stuck your head straight into a strawberry pie, washed over them.

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New Energy at Morning Glory: Turbine Ready, Farmstand Firing

The Island’s largest wind turbine to date went up this past week at Morning Glory Farm in Edgartown. The 50-kilowatt wind turbine sits atop a 120-foot galvanized steel tower.

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Don’t Let That Food Go to Waste

If Jim and Debbie Athearn had a theme song about running Morning Glory Farm for 40 years, it would be one recorded by Maria Muldaur in 1973 called “Long Hard Climb”:

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Wet Summer Leaves Paucity of Products

The summer of 2009 will be remembered for primarily one thing: rain.

“Summer? It didn’t start until the first week of August,” said James H.K. Norton of Norton Farm in Vineyard Haven. “We had no sun for two months. We planted everything in a timely fashion, but nothing ripened because there wasn’t any sun.”

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Glorious Corn

Growing corn is a labor of mishaps and love – and fortunately, it’s labor you don’t have to get into with the folks at Morning Glory Farm doing it for you.

GET THE RECIPE

Morning Glory Farm Celebrates 30 Years of Feeding an Island

There was a hoedown at Morning Glory Farm on Saturday. The farm was celebrating its 30th year as an Island agricultural institution, with friends, customers and other farmers showing up to share in the fellowship on the eve of the first day of summer.

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A Corny Story: New Book Harvests History from Morning Glory Farm

Sometime in the summer of 1970, a young Jim Athearn stood on Main street in Edgartown and faced one of the most important decisions of his life. 

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Food Waste is Key to Farmers’ Success

Coffee grinds, apple cores, and curly orange carrot peels: straight to the trash they go in most households. But on Island farms, these food scraps (along with eggshells, wilted greens, and watermelon seeds) go to the compost. For the farmers, this trash is a treasure.

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Getting Fresh-Cook the Vineyard

It’s a nice summer morning and Bernadette Cormie, the mother of two, turns into the dirt driveway at Whippoorwill Farm, off Old County Road in West Tisbury.

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Hurricane Bob Brings Harvest of Sorrow  

The shock waves of last week’s storm are still rippling through Island fields as farmers anxiously watch their crops to see the extent of the damage.

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