Remy Tumin
The future of Tea Lane Farm took a different course this week as Chilmark selectmen reviewed preliminary plans to lease the property as a farm as-is instead of spending money to restore it.
Under the new proposal, the town would lease the historic farmhouse for up to 99 years, using a resident homesite model similar to the Middle Line Road affordable housing project. The farmer tenant would be responsible for a long list of improvements that would be spelled out in the lease.
After nearly two hours of passionate and sometimes contentious debate, Aquinnah voters agreed to back a plan to install 200 solar panels at the town landfill at a special town meeting Wednesday night.
The U.S. Coast Guard has scaled down its deign for a new boathouse in Menemsha, but Chilmark selectmen said this week that it was still too big.
“The height is still an issue,” said selectman and board chairman Frank Fenner at a special presentation Tuesday afternoon. “Everything seems to be growing and we’re trying to contain this a little bit and not get into a position where everyone is up in arms about a mammoth structure.”
Trained as a scientist, Neil Atkins can detail the very moment when an enzyme breaks down from a complex sugar to a simple sugar.
Whether it’s in a sterile medical research lab or the peanut-shell-laden Offshore Ale Brewery Company in Oak Bluffs, Mr. Atkins has discovered little difference when it comes to studying molecules and creating a fine beer.
Kale gets better with frost, which causes it to turn sweeter.
And now this sweet, dark, leafy green, which some call a super food because it is packed with nutrients, will be available for sale this winter at Mermaid Farm and Dairy in Chilmark on Middle Road.
The farm grows two varieties of kale, oleracea and napus, for two different growing seasons. Oleracea is a curly variety bred in southern Europe, while napus is a hardy, flat-leafed variety better suited to withstanding winter temperatures.
Already facing a critical shortage in staff, the Aquinnah fire department now finds itself about to be leaderless after the town fire chief said this week that he would resign by the end of the year.
In an e-mail to selectman and board chairman Jim Newman, acting fire chief Jim Vercruysse said the demands of the job are putting too much strain on his family life.