This is the heartfelt declaration of a new American way of food, celebrating a year of cooking and farming on the island of Martha's Vineyard.

Chris Fischer is a chef, farmer, and writer whose roots on the island run twelve generations deep. His cooking combines practical, rural ingenuity with skill acquired in the world's leading kitchens. The result is singular and exciting.

Beetlebung Farm, his grandparents' five-acre parcel in the town of Chilmark, is both Fischer's inspiration and the source for the fine raw materials he showcases. These recipes express the unique understanding of ingredients that comes from a life spent hauling in lobster pots, cultivating vegetables, tracking game in the woods, and butchering his own meat.

In this beautifully illustrated homage to the family and community that raised him, Fischer weaves seasonal menus through stories of growing up on the island, conjuring the smoke of oak-wood fires, the brine of Great Pond oysters, and the satisfaction of a well-earned meal. The Beetlebung Farm Cookbook is a clear and essential record of contemporary New England cuisine.