One of the simplest ways to find joy is to pick up a fresh bouquet of farm-grown flowers at a roadside farm stand.

When the pandemic hit, six-year-old Henry Scott was in kindergarten at the Martha’s Vineyard Charter School and two-year-old Deirdre Scott was in preschool at First Light Child Development Center in Vineyard Haven.

Their parents Julie and Laine Scott, were working their day (and night) jobs as farm managers at Slough Farm where the family lives.

With news this week that the Chilmark Flea Market wouldn’t after all be happening this summer, I felt a wave of gratitude for the West Tisbury Farmers’ Market folks.

The peacock and the rooster were having a standoff when I got out of the car at Down Island Farm on Sunday.

Tuesday night I drove from the wilds of West Tisbury all the way to Oak Bluffs.

For years I was a production grower, planting everything in rows or squares to maximize output.