Fresh corn, tomatoes, potatoes, squash, greens and other veggies dot the farmers’ markets across the Island. Nothing compares to farm fresh eggs, sometimes you’re even able to buy Island-raised beef, and most recently locally raised and slaughtered poultry. But what about melt-in-your mouth mozzarella made with Vineyard milk, or forgetting the spaghetti and sinking your teeth into a large chunk of Parmesan, maybe even skipping the salad and going straight for the feta?

Nesting terns have for quite awhile been under pressure to find appropriate and safe nesting habitat on the beaches of New England. The coastal waterbird program at Mass Audubon and the Island’s management unit of The Trustees of Reservations both dedicate a lot of manhours and resources to the task of protecting tern colonies over the course of the breeding season, roughly from June until now.

FOUR FISH: The Future of the Last Wild Food. By Paul Greenberg. Penguin Press, New York, N.Y. July 2010. 304 pages. $25.95, hardcover.

The title is too narrow. Don’t think for a moment this is a book only about salmon, cod, bass and tuna. The book goes beyond the history and plight of four fish, to our hunger for fresh fish of all kinds. For anyone who wonders where the swordfish went, how we emerged from the collapse of the whale fishery, or simply which fish is safe to order at the restaurant, Four Fish offers much.