Now in its 49th year, the Nantucket Chamber of Commerce-sponsored Annual Christmas Stroll embodies the magic of the holiday season with tributes to Christmas’ past. They transform the island into a Winter Wonderland while creating delightful memories at this year’s Christmas Stroll, December 1st through 3rd, 2023. For more information visit https://www.nantucketchamber.org/christmas-stroll/
Make winter a little brighter with a subscription of produce from the Island Grown Initiative Farm. The Martha’s Vineyard Winter CSA starts early November, and will run until mid March. Your CSA membership supports a number of IGI initiatives from the regenerative growing techniques in our fields all the way to feeding the 4,200 registered clients at the Food Pantry and many other islanders in need. The produce only share is $650. When available, farm eggs and local goods can be purchased at pickup. The Winter CSA is split into two groups: Group A and Group B. Group A pickup begins Thursday, November 2 and will be available for pickup every other Thursday until March 14. Group B pickup begins Thursday, November 9 and runs every other Thursday until March 21. Each group has a total of ten pickups, from 1 pm – 5 pm at Island Groun Farm, 80 Stoney Hill Road in Vineyard Haven. Questions, comments, concerns: feel free to reach out to your friendly CSA Manager, Lizzie, at lizzie@igimv.org. For immediate assistance, call the office at 508-687-9062. To sign up, visit https://islandgrown.localfoodmarketplace.com/Subscriptions
Heirloom Gardening is John Forti’s newest presentation. This PowerPoint program shares inspiration from our long history of heirloom preservation, garden craft and homestead lifeways. Artisanal lifestyles that are helping us to rebuild vibrant local agricultural economies and celebrate sustainable cottage industries that are contributing to our new, homegrown American arts & crafts movement and backyard environmentalism. This Martha’s Vineyard Garden Club program on September 19 at 1 pm at The Old Mill in West Tisbury allows for a look at how you can make a difference in your own backyard and community. The presentation draws from his book of traditional plants and skills for the modern world. Illustrated with period images and contemporary woodcuts.
BIO: John Forti is an award-winning heirloom specialist, garden historian, ethnobotanist, garden writer, and local foods advocate. He is executive director of Bedrock Gardens, an artist-inspired public sculpture garden and landscape in Lee, New Hampshire, and the recipient of a national 2020 Award of Excellence from National Garden Clubs. John was formerly the Director of Horticulture for Plimoth Plantation and the Massachusetts Horticultural Society and is involved with Slow Food USA, the national chapter of Slow Food, a global organization and international grassroots movement connecting food producers and consumers to champion local agriculture, farmers markets, and traditional, regional cuisine.
http://www.jforti.com/
The Heirloom Gardener – John Forti on Facebook
John Forti- The Heirloom Gardener Book- Amazon
FREE to GC Members / Open to non-members – cost TBD at a later date
West Tisbury members and VP to provide snacks & refreshments
The Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society Livestock Show & Fair has grown into a four day island institution. From humble origins as a single day exhibition showcasing livestock and the enterprise of everyday life, the Fair has grown into an Island institution. The token final hurrah of summer, it is the place where islanders of all ages gather to meet—and eat—in the heat. The 161st Fair takes place this year August 17 – 20, and the theme is Grow it, Sew it, Show it!! For details on exhibiting, visit https://marthasvineyardagriculturalsociety.org/the-fair
The Martha’s Vineyard Garden Club will hold its Annual Meeting at The Old Mill in West Tisbury on Tuesday, August 15 at 1 pm. The speaker will be Liz Durkee of the Martha’s Vineyard Commission. She will present a program on Climate Change and the Natural Environment. Climate change is stressing the natural environment, from coastal erosion to biodiversity loss. The best
way to adapt is to work with nature, not against it. We’ll look at the impacts, what’s being done to address climate change, and investigate positive actions you can take to help make the Island as climate change resilient as possible.
Liz hopes attendees will gain an understanding of how climate change is affecting the island’s natural environment and inspiration to take positive action to address the impacts.
Liz is the climate change planner at the Martha’s Vineyard Commission. She spent summer vacations on the Island growing up and moved here full-time in 1983. She was the conservation agent for the Town of Oak Bluffs for twenty-two years before being hired as the Commission’s first climate change planner in 2021. As the conservation agent she became concerned about sea level rise and that led her to months of off-duty research to understand how climate change would specifically affect the Vineyard. The result
was 9 fifteen-part series in the Vineyard Gazette way back in 2011, called Climate Change on Martha’s Vineyard. Last year the Commission released the Island’s first Climate Action Plan, The Vineyard Way: Connected to Our Past, Committed to Our Future. https://thevineyardway.org/plan-development
FREE to MVGC Members / Open to non-members @ $10.00 pp
The Cape Cod Museum of Natural History is excited to announce the Don Schall Memorial Cape Cod BioBlitz. This event has been created in honor of Don Schall; an educator, botanist, naturalist, wetland scientist, mentor, and long-time resident of Brewster. Don’s first job on the Cape was at the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History and it is fitting that this Cape Cod BioBlitz will be held here at 869 Main Street, Brewster, Massachusetts. Don’s expertise and personality were inspirational to so many scientists and educators in the region and our goal is to continue his infectious enthusiasm for learning and appreciating biodiversity of the Cape Cod Region. The BioBlitz will require volunteers to be successful. The Museum will offer an Orientation Session at the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History in the coming weeks. Pre-registration is required. Visit https://ccmnh.org/events/don-shall-memorial-cape-cod-bioblitz-21226/2023-09-09
Heritage Museums & Gardens in Sandwich invites car enthusiasts to a fundraising event on Thursday, August 17 from 5 – 6:30 pm, to help fund its mission to inspire people of all ages to explore, discover, and learn together. Curious to get a look under the hoods at the engines in its auto collection? Interested in horsepower, bore and stroke, or other technical details? This unique event invites you to get up close and personal with the Museum’s one-of-a-kind antique and classic car collection. Go behind-the-scenes into Heritage’s auto storage area and maintenance garage and get face-to-fender with these fascinating machines. Enjoy private access to the automobile exhibit From Carriage to Classic: How Automobiles Transformed America, and watch and listen as select cars from Heritage’s collection are started up for your enjoyment. Meet expert members of our Auto Committee and learn what it takes to maintain this world-class collection. Don’t miss this opportunity to meet like-minded aficionados and to get all your in-depth classic car questions answered. This month’s program will feature an in-depth look at the 1946 Mercury Woodie Station Wagon and the 1965 Ford Country Squire Station Wagon. $15 Heritage members, $25 nonmembers. Register at www.heritagemuseumandgardens.org
The Heritage Museums and Gardens, 67 Grove Street in Sandwich is the setting for the 2023 Southeastern District Standard Flower Show. This major flower show is presented at Heritage by the Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts Southeastern District’s garden clubs and its award-winning Design & Horticulture Study Group. See beautiful, creative floral designs, lush seasonal horticulture, fascinating educational displays, and artistic crafts alongside Heritage Museums & Gardens’ renowned collections. This year’s theme is “Eureka!” The two day event, July 19 – 21, is free with admission to the Gardens. For more information visit www.heritagemuseumsandgardens.org.
The Cape Cod Museum of Natural History and Ocean Matters present An Evening with Brian Skerry on Thursday, July 27, from 6 – 8. Doors open at 6, enjoy wine and hors d’oeurve and explore the Museum, with lecture following at 7. $100. All proceeds benefit Ocean Matters initiatives and Cape Cod Museum of Natural History education programs. Tickets may be purchased at https://ccmnh.org/events/an-evening-with-brian-skerry-20949
Meet Brian Skerry, award-winning National Geographic underwater photographer, filmmaker, author, Director of Ocean Matters, and highly sought after lecturer. Brian uses his international platform to draw attention to the many environmental problems plaguing the sea and offers hope through stories of the ocean’s resilience. On this very special evening Brian will present his inspiring lecture on Secrets of the Whales. We will also hear from the Ocean Matters Teen Leaders who are making a difference to the health of our oceans.
The Vineyard Conservation Society (VCS) is the Island’s local environmental organization, dedicated to preserving our land and water through advocacy, education, and legal defense. In this Martha’s Vineyard Garden Club program on July 18, Samantha Look will share the details of the VCS “Vineyard Lawns” initiative. Due to rising concerns for how the health of our ponds, our wildlife, our pets and our own bodies are impacted by lawn care practices, VCS is advocating for a more holistic and ecologically friendly approach to how we maintain our lawns. The collective area dedicated to lawn space in the United States is roughly equivalent to the combined landmass of Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. How we reduce and manage these spaces has significant impacts. Sam will share information about how the seemingly simple act of caring for a lawn intersects strongly with climate change, water quality and personal health, as well as tips and resources for how to apply the Vineyard Lawn approach in your own backyard.
Samantha is the newly-appointed Executive Director of VCS. She began working with the organization in 2014 and helped lead plastic pollution reduction efforts, including the island-wide plastic bag ban. She is one of the three member team that maintains the Island Climate Action Network and is the liaison for the Land Use, Natural Resources and Biodiversity section of the MV Climate Action Plan. She helped lead efforts to draft and campaign the house size bylaw that was successfully adopted in West Tisbury in 2022. Sam is an avid gardener, and before working for VCS, was an assistant designer in her mother, Carly Look’s, landscape design office. Understanding the role that home gardeners can play in the protection of biodiversity and the ways in which our yards can act as extensions of our local ecosystems is a central interest to Sam and VCS.
FREE to MVGC Members / Open to non-members @ $10.00 pp. The program will take place at 1 pm at The Old Mill in West Tisbury. Oak Bluffs members and VP to provide snacks & refreshments
