mv | beets me

First weekend in MV…my backyard!

If there’s one thing I would recommend before spending 3 months in a new place, it’s to truly understand where in the world you are actually going before you get there. By this I mean, let’s say you’re spending time on an island, maybe figure out that there’s no way to get there other than boat before you arrive.

I can say that in my starry-eyed, butter-desiring quest for adventure, I literally thought I’d be skipping over a bridge with my suitcase in hand, singing Fraulein Maria style of course, straight from the plane in Boston to MV,

In reality, Martha’s Vineyard is quite a secluded island, which is 2 hours by bus plus 45 minutes by ferry if you come from Boston. There’s an airport on the island which actually has good flight deals locally, but for the most part, you’re getting here by boat. While it can be frustrating since I’m used to jumping in the car to get somewhere, it’s a pretty cool feeling to arrive to the island on a boat, seeing all the sailboats out in the Vineyard Haven harbor at their moorings (new word I learned, such an island girl right?) and getting welcomed by the beautiful shingled houses lining the shore.

The people here love the distance from “real America,” deciding to forego stoplights and street lamps for roundabouts and really dark, bumpy roads at night. I have to say, the lack of streetlights in most areas can be pretty scary for getting home at night, but the stars out here are absolutely incredible. It’s interesting to live in a vacation town, where most activity happens 2 months out of the year. When I ask the locals about being here in the off-season, they all really love the slow pace, picking up new hobbies, driving with no traffic, and appreciating the wildlife around them. I’m leaving here in September, but I often wonder if I would be “good” at relaxing in the quiet of the off-season island, or if it would be lonely.

When I arrived mid-June, I was surprised to find out that June isn’t even high season for MV. In the south, Memorial Day sparks the beginning of summer, but up here, kids don’t even get out of school until end of June. Just as an example, when Spencer and his dad came to visit in the later half of June, the BEST ice cream place wasn’t even open yet!!! How can this even be a place to vacation without its best post-beach treat place open!?

Adjusting to my new schedule wasn’t terribly difficult, but I did have some growing pains adjusting to a much more physical job. Waking up early for the 6:30 am clock-in was not too hard, but biking to work when you have no upper body strength IS in fact incredibly difficult at 6 am. One strange thing I haven’t gotten used to is observing ALL THE PEOPLE out and about at the RIPE hour of 6:15 am. Weekday or weekend, whenever I bike to work, the parking spots are full in front of Mocha Motts, our coffee place, and people are strolling around Main street. A) I get that waking up early on vacation is nice, but really, 6 am? and B) one more time, SIX AM??

When I don’t get a ride to work, biking or walking is my main mode of transportation. I wind through this little back road, sometimes waiting for a wild turkey to cross the road, and trying to get my body to wake up to bake! It took probably a month or so for my back and my arms to be able to lift our big mixer bowl full of pie dough and transfer to mixing bowls. I’m still working on not throwing out my back picking up the large sacks of flour!!

The day I really knew this experience instilled real change in me happened two days ago. For all of you people out there who have had to deal with me asking waiters if they have almond or soy milk when ordering coffee or granola/oatmeal when out to eat, I’m sorry. Since I’ve been working at Pie Chicks, I’ve been using our extra whole milk in my coffee or in my granola as a mid-morning (lol midmorning is like 8 am at a bakery) snack. The other day, I remembered to bring my almond milk in to work, and within tasting my first bite of granola with almond milk, I knew the baker in me was fully formed (potentially exaggerating here a bit). I’m here to say that whole milk is best milk. To all of you out there thinking “are you kidding me that’s like drinking heavy cream”, hate to break it to you babe, but you.are.wrong. You need to come out to the Vineyard, buy some Pie Chick’s granola and pour a healthy serving of whole milk over the top.

I’m off to go pick flowers at Morning Glory farm, hit up Net Result to get fresh seafood for my dinner tonight, and clean the house!! #dayoff

Here’s a few more snapshots in the meantime!

Another view of Taste the Vineyard….we were strategically placed right behind a cutie serving amazzinnnggg ceviche samples. Sooo good. I’ve never seen so much Vineyard Vines clothing in my life!! We served our Salted Toffee and Chocolate chip cookies, along with Blueberry, Apple Peach, Strawberry Rhubarb and Gluten Free pies 🙂

A meal of epic proportions…Spencer and Mr. Mitchell came to visit and we had a feast at Seafood Shanty in Edgartown. It was absolutely necessary to have two lobster rolls and an entire fried seafood platter. Keep in mind we had Backdoor donuts after this…

West chop is approximately 2 miles from my house. How pretty is this view? There is this tennis club/summer camp/country club looking thing at the lookout, and I think I once interrupted a wedding while biking through here in my bathing suit

Hello road to work! This is the woodsy gnome-filled (just kidding) road to the kitchen!

Some pretty views of the outside of my church. It’s no coincidence that it’s within walking distance of my house! (Grandma, another reason you should be reading my blog….I AM going to Mass up here 🙂 )

Mornings I love. A slice of pie and a cup of coffee, whilst watching the Food Network

Hello from Martha’s Vineyard, summer babes! I’m currently donning a bright yellow rain slicker, waiting for the sailboat captain to get to the right spot for our lobster fishing adventure today. Just kidding, that’s just how I imagined my Martha’s Vineyard experience before coming up here.

So, why am I 1,000 miles from home on an island off the coast of Massachusetts? To bake ALL the pies, scones, cookies, and granola for 3 months straight, obviously! I wanted to do it all day everyday to learn more about baking and get to know the scoop on working/owning a kitchen. I’m a little delayed in telling you about this because I had to make sure I had some good experiences to share. Here I am, almost 6 weeks into my summer adventure, having the time of my life.

I live in a house with three other women, right on the lagoon where we have a motley crew of animal friends. Looking out my back window, I can observe a swan family, several ducks, an occasional deer, our two cats, and our 14 year old dog Bubba. The most frequented family to our yard is a group of WILD TURKEYS. YES, TURKEYS. The other day, I came home with my bike and almost ran into the lil turkey chicas darting around our yard!! It’s so bizarre walking down the road and confronting a large turkey. Takes geese crossing to a whole new level.

I’m working at this amazing wholesale bakery called (cue fun girly The Cranberries or Sara Evans song) ….”Pie Chicks.” There’s seven chicks this summer. Our days start at 6:30 am on a normal day, usually to the sounds of John Mayer or Bruce Springsteen Spotify playlists. If you visit Martha’s Vineyard, you can find our pies at local grocery stores, farm stands, restaurants, and the West Tisbury farmers market. Every day, I’m in there, baking and doing a whooollleee lot of cleaning.

This island is incredibly gorgeous, and much more rural than I anticipated. In addition to sandy beaches and calm waters, there are many farms to explore, artisans to get to know, and hiking trails. My house has a CSA share at a farm where you can pick your own flowers !!!!

There’s so many things I have to tell you about this place and adventure and all the people and swanlings and pies.

I’ll start with a few snapshots. Last week, one of my tasks at work was to walk around with a frozen piece of key lime pie on a popsicle stick, eating it in the sun while trying to figure out how long someone could walk around outside before it would melt. #workworkworkworkwork ?!? I also was able to visit the West Tisbury farmers market a few weeks ago and I’m still wondering why in the world I did not buy a lassi from Mermaid Farm. We’ve been getting all sorts of fresh fruits delivered for our fresh fruit tarts with lemon pastry cream. One of the most fun parts of the day is watching these things come together, as our pastry chefs slice up plums, nectarines, strawberries, or peaches and carefully make pretty spirals on the gorgeous tarts.

Okay, with that glimpse in mind, here are some pics of MV!!!

Here is a pic of the little swanling who lives somewhere near the lagoon? He used to come through our backyard a lot but maybe we scared him off Any thoughts on what his/her name should be?

On my first week, I got to work this event called Taste the Vineyard and we set up our pies all cute like this !!

Welcome to Chez Pie Chicks! It’s actually a commercial kitchen in a residential neighborhood. Kinda cool. I think there’s also some sort of camp nearby because as I was walking to work one day I think I saw an archery range. During the day, you can smell fancy butter, bubbling fruit pies , and the sinful smells of oats, chocolate, and brown sugar wafting from our doors.

Here’s our sweet shed. You can find me in here lifting big boxes of frozen fruit, attempting to carry big A bags of flour over to the kitchen, or playing tetris with boxes of scones and cookie dough in our freezer trying to get them all to fit.

And here’s my stylish bike that my awesome boss found me for the summer! It’s a little cruiser and it has ventured all the way out to West Tis and even Edgartown on my leisurely days off.