Remy Tumin
Jim Athearn is excited about the genetic possibilities from his new bull Moshup.
“We need to get into better breeding in two respects — better percentage of calves each year from the females we have, and have each one grow to be a profitable size,” Mr. Athearn said, looking over his cow herd in Chilmark. The owner of Morning Glory Farm will be the first to admit that the farm’s strengths lie in their vegetables and not in their meat production, and he’d like to do better.
Bay scallopers in Chilmark are being asked to concentrate on Nashaquitsa Pond until early next month in order to make the most efficient use of a healthy crop of scallops this year.
The Chilmark selectmen voted Tuesday to close Menemsha Pond to scalloping from Nov. 21 through Dec. 3, and increase the daily limit in Quitsa to three struck bushels. The selectmen also agreed to open the area outside of Chocker’s Creek from the eastern buoy defining the closed area to the town line beginning Nov. 21.
Tobias Vanderhoop, tribal administrator for the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah), has stepped down from his position, the chairman of the tribe confirmed on Friday.
In an email to the Gazette, chairman of the tribe Cheryl Andrews-Maltais said Mr. Vanderhoop tendered his resignation a month ago.
The West Tisbury selectmen sounded off to state highway officials this week over changes on the Mill River Ford bridge in North Tisbury, pressing for railings that would be in keeping with the character of the town. They also decided to revisit the precarious intersection of Old County and State Roads.
As the northeast continues to recover from Hurricane Sandy’s historic destruction two weeks ago, federal and state disaster relief officials visited the Vineyard on Thursday to assess damages and help begin the reimbursement process for damages to town property sustained during the storm.
Initial estimates to town and county owned coastlines and property Island-wide swelled to over $14.2 million.
By the end of the week, stock, lard, foie gras, Italian sausage, bratwurst, breakfast sausage and rich salami would be plentiful around the premises of caterer Kitchen Porch. But on Tuesday morning, it was all bones, soft fat, lean fat and dark red pieces of lean flank meat, neatly stacked in individual piles in front of Francois Vecchio.
Mr. Vecchio is a world-renowned master of artisanal meat, and this week he tutored nearly a dozen farmers, chefs and amateurs in the ways of the fine art of salumi making.