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Please take the Bluedot Living 2023 Survey
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Every other Sunday, Bluedot Living Martha's Vineyard will share stories about local changemakers, Islanders’ sustainable homes and yards, planet-friendly recipes and tips, along with advice from Dear Dot. Did your friend
send you this? Sign up for yourself here. Do you know someone else who would enjoy it? Forward to a friend.
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Want to support our local, solutions-focused climate journalism? Contribute here.
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SIMPLE / SMART / SUSTAINABLE / STORIES
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SIMPLE / SMART / SUSTAINABLE / STORIES
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Though we published this story by Catherine Walthers in August of 2022, it was by far the most clicked-on story of 2023. Sheny Leon took this beautiful portrait of Rebecca Gilbert, at her Native Earth Teaching Farm in Chilmark. Gilbert had just published the book Weedy Wisdom for the Curious Forager: Common Wild Plants to Nourish Body & Soul. For Cathy, the book didn’t just supply her with tips on how to make cough drops (for
example) from things growing around you, but that “Rebecca’s life right here helps us appreciate the ‘wild’ Martha’s Vineyard in our backyard,” and the book can teach us much about adapting to a world experiencing climate change. (Bunch of Grapes usually has this book in stock, or you can find it on Amazon here.)
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Quick Links
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Skip scrolling! Here's what you'll find in this edition of the Bluedot Newsletter:
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Your Favorite Things
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Tony Holand made this larger-than-life seahorse. Photo courtesy Tony Holand
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You’ve got your Spotify Wrapped for 2023? Welcome to Bluedot MV Wrapped; we’re sharing our readers’ favorite stories of the year. Seems you all couldn’t get enough of foraging farmer Rebecca Gilbert (featured above), a story Catherine Walthers brought us back in 2022, which remained our most popular story in 2023. Columnist Mollie’s Doyle’s story about Vineyard Haven’s Seven Sisters store earned lots of eyeballs on our site. We at Bluedot have long treasured Geoff Currier, our “Cruising” columnist, and you all do too, particularly his ridealong with Judy Belushi Pisano in her Chevy Volt (in past years, his “Cruising” columns with Hasoni Pratts in a Tesla, and Laurie David in a Nissan Leaf, were quite popular). You celebrated along with Gannon and Benjamin in this story about the building of their 100th boat.
Another story from 2022 was popular: Ben Robinson and Betsy Carnie making a seasonal home at the Barnhouse with their eco-conscious kids. And Mollie Doyle introduced us to Tony Holand and the larger-than-life seahorse weathervane he
created.
Local Hero Rebecca Haag won
plenty of clicks for her work with IGI and particular made-on-the-Vineyard solutions. And finally, award-winning writer Sam Moore taught all of us what was in our cups when we poured ourselves some coffee.
If you missed any of those stories, we hope you’ll revisit them on our site. But don’t overlook some equally entertaining stories we published over the past year. Staff faves include Sam Moore spilling the secrets of the Vineyard’s salt marshes; Biodiversity Works’ story about a snake hibernacula; and Leslie Garrett’s story about the complexities of corn.
As we call 2023 a wrap on this last day of the year, we can assure you we’ve got a whole lot of new stories in the works, which we can’t wait to share over the next year.
For now, thanks for reading and loving Bluedot.
–Jamie Kageleiry and Leslie Garrett
Note: On Jan. 6 at 1:30 pm, at the OB library, the Oak Bluffs Climate and Energy committee hosts a discussion with Nina Hitchen, local “waste reduction superstar, who’ll talk about her family’s journey to a life without plastic.” You can find info about future discussions here.
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If your fridge is packed with leftovers, consider using them up in a recipe. More yum … less waste:
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And don’t miss Bluedot’s Q and
A with cookbook author Alexis de Boschnek, who has more great tips on how to avoid waste.
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Paid Advertisement
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Gannon and Benjamin's 100th Boat
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“When the world was smaller, harbors all had different boats,” writes Harry Ricciardi in this story (one of the year’s most popular) about Gannon and Benjamin’s 100th boat. The boats were “suited to the bodies of water they crossed. … It wasn’t that people were so determined to distinguish themselves; they just made boats that worked well where they were. Since factories have been constructed that coerce rivers of petrochemicals into boat shapes that can be banged out of molds like ice cubes, it’s generally easier not to build your own. But in Vineyard Haven, the team at Gannon and Benjamin Marine Railway builds custom wooden boats for personal reasons. The boats Ross Gannon and Nat Benjamin liked when they were young sailors got too old to sail without being rebuilt. The shop, founded around 1979, evolved from a lot of the skills Ross
and Nat had gained over two decades of trying to keep their own half-wrecked boats on the water.” Read the rest here.
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BUY LESS/BUY BETTER:
Nurturing Hobbies in the New Year
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The Bluedot Marketplace includes affiliate links. If you purchase a product through one of our links, we may earn a commission, essentially a small digital finder’s fee. These commissions help us fund the valuable journalism that you see on Bluedot. Thank you for supporting us!
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What is it that you’re looking forward to in 2024? For some of us, it can be easy to talk about a resolution, but actually making things happen may be harder. We recommend these three Bluedot favorite reads for those of you looking to pursue laudable goals in 2024. If you want to:
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DEAR DOT: Can I Compost in the Winter?
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–Illustration by Elissa Turnbull
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Dear Dot,
I started a compost pile in my backyard and it’s been doing its thing. But it’s now cold where I live and I noticed that the food waste I’m putting in is just sorta frozen. Should I stop putting anything in my outdoor compost until the weather warms up?
–Sonya
Dear Sonya,
I took your compost query to Kristen Raney, a blogger and gardener who lives near Clavet, a village in the province of
Saskatchewan with a population of 467, according to 2021 data, and average winter temperatures from highs of 18°F (-8°C) to lows of 3°F (-16°C). Kristen knows a thing or two (or three) about winter composting.
Though “winter composting,” Kristen clarifies, is a bit of a misnomer. “In cold climates, it’s simply too cold over the winter for any sort of breakdown to occur outdoors,” she says. Instead, we’re really just stockpiling compost ingredients over the winter for decomposition in the spring when warmer temperatures arrive. For a moment, my thoughts hearken back to a simpler time and I picture pioneer Dots maybe probably composting like champs through bitter Canadian winters. But I am a wimpier Dot. A summer-loving Dot. Though I’m also a compost-loving Dot. Can’t I just wait for spring to lure me back to my compost heap?
No need! And the Vineyard makes
winter composting particularly easy. How?
Read
on.
See more Dot here. Got a question for her? Write
her at deardot@bluedotliving.com
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Sign up here for Your Daily Dot newsletter! Get a daily dose of Dot's eco-friendly wisdom when she answers your sustainability questions.
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What’s Behind the Name “Bluedot”?
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“There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world,” astronomer Carl Sagan wrote in 1994’s Pale Blue Dot. “To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.” Sagan’s humbling words inspire us to deliver stories to you that reflect his and so many others’ work to cherish this blue dot. Please consider forwarding this newsletter to your friends and family to share and inspire real-world eco-actions we can take at home and in our Martha’s Vineyard community.
Thanks for being part of our Bluedot community!
–Jamie Kageleiry and Leslie Garrett
Editors, Bluedot Living Martha’s Vineyard
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Jamie Kageleiry, a longtime magazine and newspaper editor from Oak Bluffs, says her favorite spot on earth is on the trails around Farm Pond, and out in a kayak there, looking at birds.
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Leslie Garrett has been covering climate stories for close to two decades. A newcomer part-time to the Vineyard, she’s still figuring out her favorite spot but it’s definitely near the water.
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