Michael Pollan left an overflow crowd at the Farm Institute with a clear message last week: start cooking.

“You can take a deep dive into the soul with cooking,” he said a during a sold-out a reading of his new book Thursday night.

It was hard to tell which came first in the hearts of Islanders last Sunday — the chicken or the egg. The Coop de Ville Tour sponsored by Slow Food Martha’s Vineyard offered the opportunity for an egg-centric brunch followed by tours of chicken operations on several farms around the Island. All the chicken love had a purpose, too, according to the people at Slow Food Martha’s Vineyard.

Throughout the school year, the Island Grown Schools Harvest of the Month program highlights a locally available crop at all seven of our K-12 schools and at six preschools, in school taste tests, on cafeteria lunch menus, and in partnership with Island grocery stores and restaurants.

During the summer, while IGS staff, parents, students and teachers volunteer to maintain our 13 school gardens, students from the regional high school are keeping the Harvest of the Month program alive.

Summer is the time for taking advantage of the abundance of available fresh vegetables and fruits. Lightly steamed, prepared raw, sautéed or grilled, vegetables go with anything, anytime. Gobbled up as snacks, blended into smoothies or sliced on top of yogurt, fruit quenches thirst, adds sweetness and tastes delicious.

In the summer of 1971 Michael Pollan’s pig Kosher won first prize at the Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Fair. But her glory was short-lived.

Folksinger James Taylor had also entered his pig, Mona, at the fair. She, too, won a blue ribbon. Mona, a very large pig, was made famous by a celebrated photograph of Mr. Taylor and the pig walking on his property in West Tisbury.

Every bookstore, no matter how old, has a story behind it.

Edgartown Books is no exception.

Last year, after what some thought could be the end of an iconic Island bookstore, Edgartown Books on Main street reopened for business under new ownership. And the denouement is still being written.

So what would you do if the opportunity arose to expand this recently revived and popular Edgartown business?

If you’re Susan Mercier, manager, you open a coffee bar and café directly behind the bookstore, and you title it such, Behind the Bookstore, or btb.