Morning Glory Farm: And the Family That Feeds an Island

Everyone on the the Island of Martha's Vineyard off the coast of Massachusetts eventually ends up at Morning Glory Farm -- celebrities, Islanders, summer visitors, foodies.

Buying fresh, locally grown and prepared foods from Morning Glory is a rite of passage. Here, rich in detail and lush with the photographs of Alison Shaw, is the story of how the farm came to exist, the family that makes it happen, and the food that excites us all. The 70 recipes include favorites from both the farm stand and some well-known Island chefs.

The Morning Glory Farm story is a romantic one: A young husband and wife hailing from different ends of Martha s Vineyard, with different backgrounds and different expectations in life, carve a few acres out of woodlands and plant what turns out to be a crop of wormy corn.

Thirty years later, the worms are gone, and the couple plant, cultivate, harvest, and sell dozens of fruits and vegetables, prepared dishes and baked goods from a rustic farm stand that is the epicenter of fine, locally grown foods on the Vineyard. They supply restaurants with their produce restaurants that then brag about using Morning Glory products and they literally have people waiting in lines to buy just-picked corn and just-baked pies.

And they do this with the help of a large and loyal crew and two sons who work alongside them planting and harvesting by hand on this most traditional of farms. It is a lesson in sustainable farming that is not to be missed.

This book tells the story of those thirty years, and gives you recipes of the food they offer for sale, along with Jim and Debbie Athearn s own family recipes and recipes from some of the Island s favorite chefs.