In Print : Island farm and family
"Morning Glory Farm and the family that feeds an island," by Tom Dunlop. Photos by Alison Shaw. Vineyard Stories, June, 2009. 156 pages. $24.95.
Debbie and Jim Athearn outside their popular farm stand on the Edgartown- West Tisbury Road.
It is the story of one farm, Morning Glory, founded in 1979, and of one family, the Athearns, James Athearn from West Tisbury and Deborah Galley Athearn from Edgartown, high school sweethearts who married and raised a farming family. But in telling it, in picturing it, an essential understanding of local farming on the Vineyard, of the life and mission of farming, and of the power of family tradition, is captured.
"Morning Glory Farm and the family that feeds an island," was released to Island book stores yesterday. The book covers details of its history: Deborah Athearn's father, Kenneth T. Galley, bought the first 17 1/2 acres of Morning Glory Farm in 1943 for $7. It also tells its story through writer Tom Dunlop's well-honed descriptions of the morning to night routine of farm life. He quotes veteran Farm worker Rebecca Barnatt: "And the crop might not even come up. Rodents sometimes - they've been eating the cilantro lately. And in retaliation, after I covered it the other week, they danced all over the cash register. You should have seen the mouse prints. Then there's the weather."
Bakery worker Beverly Mizra keeps shelves stocked with fresh pies and breads. Photo courtesy of Alison Shaw
Mr. Dunlop, a former editor at the Vineyard Gazette, says, "I think I went into it with a general sense that farming stops, but farming never stops. When you drive by the farm stand, it may be closed, but there are people harvesting stuff up to Christmas time... How damn hard that family has worked for generations - just incredible. It's 24 hours a day."
His innocence about farming made him enthusiastic about the challenge of writing the book. "The first draft was due in the middle of October, and there was simply no getting around the fact that I was going to have to work really fast and spend an awful lot of time at the farm, which is basically what I did. For the next two months I got there pretty much when the workers got there, around 6:30 am."
And as described by Mr. Dunlop, the pervasive spirit that fuels and fashions the approximately 45-acre farm and its Vineyard-famous farm stand, become contagious. It affected both Mr. Dunlop, who refers to Jim Athearn as "a visionary" about the locally grown movement, and Alison Shaw, whose photographs fill the pages of the book.
First impression: Each color-intense photograph, whether a scene or detail, a portrait or still life, transcends sight and summons all the senses. Ms. Shaw glazes a double-page winter scene in a blue chill; outlines a close-up of field flowers in a first-light heat; conjures aromas in page after page of soups, breads, and salads.
With texture, design, and dramatic clarity, Ms. Shaw's photos, well chosen and paced, tell the story of the farm and make it resonate. "I'm a colorist," she says. "That's what I like to do. That's my thing. I couldn't shoot a brown book."
Ms. Shaw admits that the dazzling collection of photos in the book were "pushed a little bit," in the printing process. "This is the first book I shot entirely with my digital camera. I was always trying to bring a little more color out of my subjects and to tread this fine line between making it look too weird."
It was the Athearns who commissioned the book from Vineyard Stories on the occasion of the farm's 30th anniversary. Working with Vineyard Stories publishers, the late John Walter and his wife, Jan Pogue, the team was assembled, then turned loose to the task.
"We were working in parallel universes," Ms. Shaw says of her collaboration with Mr. Dunlop, "and somehow captured the same spirit of the whole place."
Both writer and photograph became part of the farm's landscape. "I was just there so much, and there really early," Ms. Shaw remembers, adding, "One of the biggest compliments that Jim paid to me at one point was that I had the work ethic of a farmer."
With broad strokes and salient details, "Morning Glory Farm" recounts history, chronicles working days on the farm and in the seasonal farm stand, explains the Athearns' approach and methods, and introduces members of their real family and the close to 70 workers who compose their extended one.
The book contains a section of 70 choice recipes contributed by the farm and Island chefs who use Morning Glory produce in their kitchens. Under the title, "Jim and Debbie's Quick Fixes" is also a three-page list of crops, harvest dates, and, in a single phrase, instruction on preparation.
With pictures that can make the reader salivate, Ms. Shaw photographed the recipes at the restaurants, in her own kitchen, and in the case of a Sweet Life recipe, at the chef's house. "With the farm recipes I ended up either getting carry out and taking them home or actually making the recipes myself at home," she says.
Ms. Shaw shot thousands of images and had many more "keepers" than could be used. "I had another 50 to 100 pictures that I would have loved to have in there," she says.
It is a sentiment shared by Mr. Dunlop: "I felt almost a sense of heartache because I was hearing about stuff that I wasn't going to [have the space] to use. I probably got to tell three or four percent of the whole story.
"Everyone was passionate and eloquent," he adds. "The Athearns and the workers knew how to tell me the story, knew how to talk to me as the customer that didn't know anything but was curious about how this handful of broccoli or this bean wound up in this basket. These guys have 30 years of experience doing this; they know things intuitively that couldn't have been explained to me even if they had a year."
Guided by Jan Pogue, the project, which Mr. Walter did not live to see completed, would have made him proud on all counts.
"In 2008, I don't know if there was a writer on Martha's Vineyard who was luckier than me," Mr. Dunlop says. "This all just fell into my lap. I knew like I'd been hit by lightening that this was going to be one of the really great experiences of my professional life. This goes down creatively as one of the three or four most rewarding things that I've ever done."
