In Our Fall 2021 Issue

Grist For the Mill
By Larry Egan

A rising tide may float all boats, but a tsunami can certainly swamp them. Like the receding ocean before the massive wave hits, the warming weather and eased restrictions acted as harbingers of the onslaught to come for local businesses in the summer of 2021. Left in the wake of Cape Cod’s summer season are exhausted thousand-yard stares, and an even greater level of respect we have for those businesses who met the challenges head-on and overcame. A perfect storm of pent-up demand from clientele and lack of staffing combined to test the limits of even the most hardened business veterans. We heard the stories. The tales of reduced hours, smaller numbers of available tables and even shutting the doors for a day in the name of protecting staff members. Making sure mental and physical health were holding up. All of this after surviving a particularly desolate off-season. To you, we say “Bravo!”

We also heard of groups once again coming together to help each other. In “A Recipe for Survival” Karen Bento brings us the story of the Wellfleet Preservation Hall’s solution to an inability to hold their usually very-well-attended fundraisers: a cookbook packed with recipes from local chefs. The chefs, in turn, are also benefitting from book sales to help them regain some of their pandemic losses.

Jay Powell of JP’s Twisted BBQ has had quite the culinary journey. We caught up with him to learn about his long, not-so-strange, and definitely entertaining trip that has taken him from Western Massachusetts to national television, and now Cape Cod in “Plot Twist”. His latest stop in the parking lot of Cape Cod Beer couldn’t have come at a better time for both the chef and the hosts alike.

In another “only on Cape Cod” story, a robotics engineer and ocean ecologist added “shepherd” to their skill sets, and Michelle Koch explains how the pair are working to protect a cherished Falmouth conservation area while paying homage to the history of the land in “Sheep Count”.

What does a land-locked seafaring chef do to satisfy his hankering for cheese that is normally satiated in far-flung ports around the world? In “The Whey of The World”, Jeff Avery explains how he learned to find some exotic and tasty cheeses right here on Cape Cod and made a few personal realizations along the way.

We all realize that we need to eat enough fruits and vegetables for a healthy diet, and many of us don’t. Seniors are particularly prone to not eating enough fresh produce. Sustainable CAPE and Outer Cape Health Services have joined forces to help doctors provide more than the cursory recommendation of, “You should eat more vegetables.” Doctors have been writing prescriptions for fruits and vegetables in the pilot “Fruit & Vegetable Prescription Program” this past growing season. Andrea Pyenson talked with the program’s creators in “Doctors’ Orders” about the lengths to which they’re going to ensure seniors have access to fresh, local produce and know how to prepare it. The added benefit of more social interaction is a welcome bonus.

Fall on Cape Cod has long been considered “locals’ summer”. The weather is beautiful, the streets are just a bit quieter, and we do try to make the most of it. If ever there was a time when many of us needed to unwind, it is now. Sure, there is still work to be done. Business goes on, and we don’t roll up the sidewalks of Cape Cod and go into hibernation until next summer. Yet, it is time to reconnect with friends and family. Unplug to recharge. Put your feet up, let your hair down, take a deep breath and repeat after me: Ahhh...