When Labor Day weekend ends and the vast sea of tourists and summer residents begin to trickle home, Island businesses and restaurants feel the pinch. With so much of the Island’s consumer population disappearing, it isn’t always easy to keep turning a profit. For some, the Martha’s Vineyard Food and Wine Festival might be the solution. Established six years ago, the Food and Wine Festival gives restaurants and businesses the chance to continue their commercial success into the shoulder season.

Nutrient-dense but encumbered by a bad rap for the cholesterol in their yolks, eggs amount to near perfection for ecology-minded farmers. Every part of an egg is useful right down to crushing the shells for a fine abrasive suitable for scrubbing pots and pans when mixed in a little dish soap. You could mix the crushed shells with a little egg white and make yourself a nice facial mask.

When Eric Asimov visits the Island for the book festival it will be his first time on the Vineyard in 30 years. His last trip was marked by trying his first farm-fresh egg. He was in college at the time, sleeping on a friend’s floor, and for breakfast one morning they went to the neighbor’s next door to fetch the eggs for breakfast.

Ask for a naked Fat Ronnie and it can only get better from there.

That’s the basic half-pound burger at Fat Ronnie’s, the new burger joint on Circuit avenue in Oak Bluffs, which comes with the simple fixings of a beef patty and bun. There are also 22 toppings (30 by the end of the summer) that you can choose from, or the fish burger made with haddock, the turkey or veggie burger or the burrito burger, to name a few.

On an unseasonably chilly Friday evening in Vineyard Haven, Juliska on Main street is packed, though oddly quiet save for the occasional “yum... this is good” and a persistent scrape of silverware on plates. Odd sounds for a store devoted to tablewear.

Behind a table Chrissy Kinsman stands beaming. In front of her are the reasons for the night’s reverie. Pies, lots of them.