I am not used to ill health in myself, which is why not too long ago I signed up to build a chimney with a friend.

I had been growing food on a small plot in the corner of the farm for a couple of summers when my Aunt Marie told me she was ready to call it quits.

Chris Fischer knows Martha’s Vineyard well. The family homestead, Beetlebung Farm, is the primary subject of Mr. Fischer’s new book, The Beetlebung Farm Cookbook.

My grandfather was ninety-six years old when he died. He tripped, a bucket of fertilizer in one hand and a shovel in the other.

The farmer invited us inside his home to join his wife and cat. We sat on fold-out chairs around a fold-out aluminum table next to a wood stove.