Just as I prepared to abandon all hope, the tiniest carrot seedlings emerged. It has been more than three weeks since I planted. Both the lettuce and radishes came up in a little more than a week. Why I can’t remember one simple truth in gardening is beyond me. It takes what it takes. Peas planted a month apart will pretty much give you your first pea on about the same day. So, never fret when a friend brags that his or her seeds have been in the ground ahead of yours.

I have had more failures and mishaps learning to farm than most. My tendency to be cheap and, at times, careless has proven costly more often than not. In California, on a winery where we were also raising food, three heritage breed piglets were purchased from a breeder on the coast for more money than I would like to admit. They were brought back to their new home, and housed in a small makeshift pen meant to be a temporary home while we constructed a more permanent place for them behind a large storage facility.

Live and rarely ever learn. I complained all week about the wind but went ahead anyway and planted out some teensy seedlings. They had been coming along nicely in a warm cozy greenhouse and, true to my nature, I could not wait to put them into the ground. Needless to say they were pretty much beaten to death. We’re talking about romaine lettuce, broccoli rabe, Russian kale and miniscule seedlings. Good thing I over-planted inside so replacement will not be a problem. Luckily, I’ve learned to shake my head at my own self.

Big doings out at Bayes-Norton Farm. I’ve been watching all week and wondering if the garden is being expanded or a if a house is on the way. Those big machines sure make short work of land clearing. I was thinking about our ancestors doing the same task with nothing but beasts of burden and pure brawn. They couldn’t stop by for take-out on the way home either.

It’s out with the white linen table cloths and in with the repurposed wood as the farm-to-table movement anchors itself in Chilmark this summer.

Farmer and chef Chris Fischer will take the helm of the restaurant at the Beach Plum Inn in Menemsha, the inn announced this week. Mr. Fischer will source directly from his family’s farm, Beetlebung Farm, just over a mile down the road.

The fisherman were out at the Mill Pond in West Tisbury this past Sunday in search of trout, giving hope that this winter’s curtain call will soon be ending. The water is getting warmer and the resilient trout that hunkered down for the cold months in our ponds and streams now swim about and feed alongside the newly replenished stocks brought in each spring from hatcheries on the mainland.