TRURO — The annual Truro Vineyards Grape Stomp celebrates traditional winemaking. And even though that might not figure as a big part of the town’s history, for a lot of people it’s a favorite part of the annual Truro Treasures weekend.
Truro Vineyards
THE SEASON
Truro Businesses Take on New Endeavors
From sandwiches to tapas, the big question is who will serve them
TRURO — As the Outer Cape braces for its seasonal population swell, businesses are unlatching their doors for the surge. In Truro, several of them are also in transition — or at least getting ready to try something new. What’s feeling a little old at this point to most of them, it seems, is the work of getting their seasonal crews situated.
“There are a lot of people who want to work here,” said Liam Luttrell Rowland, owner and chef at Salty Market in North Truro. “It’s just a question of finding a place for them to stay.” His words echoed those of his fellow Truro business owners.
There are some hopeful newcomers this year. Terra Luna served its last meal in October. But Juan Carlos Millan and Dawnell Dennison plan to reopen the place at 104 Shore Road as Millan’s.
Millan, who was formerly chef at the Mews in Provincetown, and Dennison, who was for seven years a prep cook at Ciro and Sal’s, got their liquor license go-ahead from the Truro Select Board on May 14.
Their proposed menu includes a culinary mélange. There will be a raw bar, poke bowls, green curry, and fettuccini Bolognese — wild boar or vegan.
“I’m really excited for you guys, and I wish you much, much success,” said board chair Kristen Reed.
“I appreciate your willingness to take this on,” said board member Stephanie Rein. “Those are some pretty big shoes to fill,” she added, referring to Terra Luna’s Tony Pasquale.
“We’re going to do our best,” Millan said. He mentioned the idea of offering the occasional Terra Luna-inspired special just to remember the place by.
Millan’s liquor license was effective May 15 and is valid until Oct. 31. The initial motion allowing alcohol to be served Thursday to Sunday was amended to allow the restaurant to serve every day. Millan said he hoped to stay open seven days a week starting in July.
Meanwhile at Salty Market, Luttrell Rowland is gearing up for a new Friday afternoon offering: pinchos and tapas. That’ll happen outside the shop, where picnic tables and benches make for casual seating.
Because Salty Market doesn’t yet have a license to serve liquor, it can offer only wine when doing tastings. At these events, the market will feature natural wines from mainly women-owned companies, said Luttrell Rowland.
The market opened for the season on April 6. Starting next week, it will be open every day but Tuesday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., with groceries, grab-and-go meals, and a deli that makes sandwiches and other meals to order. The space has a new layout, partially thanks to three new tables that came from Chequessett Chocolate.
Katherine Reed, the artisanal chocolate entrepreneur, did not respond to inquiries seeking an update on that business, which she and cofounder Josiah Mayo decided to offer for sale last winter. Mayo, who in November told the Independent he hoped to continue working there, also declined to talk about the business’s trajectory. The doors at Chequessett Chocolate are closed and the windows covered.
Luttrell Rowland said he’ll miss having the chocolate shop down the street: “It’s sad,” he said. “It definitely affects us not to have neighbors.”
With Friday afternoon tapas soon to be on the menu, Luttrell Rowland is turning his attention to another ambitious goal: “We want to have the best breakfast sandwich on the Cape,” he said.
The front of the shop at the Truro General Store, formerly Jams, at 14 Truro Center Road, looks deceptively the same as last year. Produce, pantry goods, and toiletries are on offer alongside Truro swag. In the back, though, a new space has been cleared out for local artists to show and sell their work.
The store is also back to providing sandwiches made to order at its deli window. General manager Ruby Taylor recommended a turkey sandwich with bacon. Earlier they were reduced to grab-and-go options because of staffing shortages, said owner Scott Cloud.
The general store is also gearing up to offer catering for the first time — namely charcuterie, cheese boards, and fruit plates. “We’re not trying to do the whole wedding,” said Cloud. He doesn’t have the staff to do that, he said, which “greatly limits what you can accomplish.”
The shop is “working on being year-round,” Cloud said; he’s waiting as the town considers a year-round alcohol license. The shop sells alcohol during the summer, and clearing out the shop each winter would be a hassle, he said.
Truro Vineyards is now home to Chequessett Chocolate’s High Tide ice cream truck. “We always loved that truck,” said vineyard owner Kristen Roberts.
That new attraction is apt for the shift in visitors the vineyard has seen over the years, said Roberts: “For whatever reason, we’re seeing a lot of young families.”
High Tide will keep its name but serve ice cream from Lewis Brothers in Provincetown and the Local Scoop in Orleans. The plan is to keep it open only on weekends through June and expand to seven days in July and August.
“We’re hoping it’s a one-person job, and I do have a lot of younger people that are eager to work” the ice cream truck, said Roberts.
The perennial challenge of staffing — brought about, proprietors said, by a severe housing shortage — has been intense this year.
“We’re trying to find a place that we can purchase for staff housing,” Cloud said. “But when your average price tag is a million dollars, that makes it hard.”
“Year to year, I don’t know if we’re even going to open,” said Blackfish restaurant co-owner Eric Jansen. “That ‘if’ is fully based on staffing and housing,” which came together this year later than ever, he said, thanks to a combination of returning staff and a rental in Wellfleet for “a very large sum of money.”
The restaurant’s workforce is about half what it used to be (15 to 20 now, down from 30), and it’s open five nights a week instead of seven. That translates into a drop from serving 220 dinners to about 110 per night now, said Jansen.
At Truro Vineyards, “we can really shrink and swell what we offer based on staffing,” said Roberts, “but unfortunately, it’s not great for our bottom line.”
Roberts said that hiring high schoolers whose families live here cuts out the struggle to find housing but makes it hard to sustain a workforce in the fall.
“What we struggle with is finding staff that can work the full season,” said Roberts. “It just takes a lot of work and creativity.”
Roberts said that concerns about Truro becoming urban or suburban are “a flat-Earther argument as far as I’m concerned,” given that two-thirds of the town is in the National Seashore.
“I applaud anybody in Truro that is trying to make it work and trying to make a sustainable business,” Roberts added. “It is not easy.”
MEET THE MAKER
Jacques van der Vyver Makes This Cape His Terroir
Truro Vineyards has a new vintner from South Africa’s Western Cape
TRURO — I’m not sure what to expect as I pull into Truro Vineyards to meet the new senior winemaker, briefed by an online industry publication’s profile that called him a “heartthrob” with a passion for wine “as hot as his hairstyle.” When he emerges from between the winery’s stainless-steel tanks, his hair looks fine, but it’s Jacques van der Vyver’s high-wattage smile that gets my attention.
Van der Vyver moves to turn down the rock anthems blaring from the winery speakers, then grabs my hand, shaking it in a friendly greeting like a cheerful Bacchus in a button-down. His accent gives away his off-Cape origins. He’s come to Truro from the Western Cape of South Africa, stopping for successful stints as a winemaker in Maryland and Connecticut on the way.
When he was young, van der Vyver traveled to his country’s top wineries with his father, a mechanical engineer involved in renovating wineries’ infrastructures. What he wanted to learn about most, though, was grape-growing and winemaking.
The University of Stellenbosch, in one of South Africa’s most famous wine-producing regions and where van der Vyver got a degree in agriculture and cellar and vineyard management, is something like “the U.C. Davis of South Africa,” he says. Now he’s working toward a Level 4 diploma from the Wine and Spirit Education Trust, an expert-level step that would allow him to sit for the Institute of Masters of Wine exam. Since the inaugural exam in 1953, only 500 people have been admitted to the prestigious circle of Masters of Wine worldwide.
South Africa’s vineyards are mainly located in the Western Cape, but they stretch across varied microclimates, from warm, dry inland areas to mountain slopes to the humid coasts. Van der Vyver is interested in the challenges and possibilities that range represents for winemakers. When he moved to the U.S. 10 years ago — partly motivated by the desire to leave behind the social and political struggles that still plague his homeland but even more by the desire for new winemaking challenges — he resisted the pull of California to take a less-traveled road.
He was working at Haight-Brown Vineyard in Litchfield, Conn. when he met Lauren Mahaney, whose family had spent summers in Orleans since the 1950s. The two were married in 2015. When he heard about the vintner job at Truro Vineyards, the Outer Cape did not seem like too big a detour. He became their head winemaker in March.
The East Coast, van der Vyver points out, is a historic winemaking region stretching from the Finger Lakes of New York to the Haw River Valley of North Carolina. One of the earliest agricultural efforts of European colonialists in North America was the planting of vineyards. “East Coast wine is still developing,” he says, “and being part of that is exciting.”
Still, he admits, “The humidity of the East Coast does make viniculture challenging.” The thing to do, he says, is to try to work with the climate rather than against it. “You can’t make a California-style wine here,” he says. “And why would you want to?”
While Truro Vineyards has about three acres of grapes under cultivation, most of the fruit used by the winery is brought in from other vineyards in the form of juice for white wines and whole fruit for reds. Grape sourcing is not an unusual practice for small wineries, says van der Vyver. To keep the wine regionally rooted, he buys exclusively from East Coast vineyards.
The Outer Cape’s cooler summers and shorter growing seasons mean that some of the vineyard’s greatest successes have been with whites, especially sauvignon blancs, albariños, and the vineyard’s white blend (a combination of albariño, pinot blanc, and Riesling). It happens, says van der Vyver, that these wines go well with our seafood-focused cuisine.
On a walk through the winery, van der Vyver offers a mini-lesson in one of the most significant aspects of the winemaking process, the selection of oak barrels for aging. Part of his role is to experiment with barrel types to create specific characteristics. East Coast reds like Truro Vineyard’s Maritime Red or Cabernet Franc “should be fresh and fruity,” he says, “so for them we choose barrels that will not overburden the wine — generally French and Hungarian oak barrels play a supportive role. Barrel production is one of the most enjoyable parts of winemaking,” he adds. “It’s pure art.”
The barrels cost about $1,200 each and have a life of about four years, van der Vyver says. As a result, he puts his cellar management skills into play in pursuit of thoughtful economies. After they’re used for aging wine, the barrels are repurposed for Madeira — a fortified wine — and after that they’re transferred to the distillery for aging bourbon.
Now that he’s settled in, or partly so (he and Lauren and their two-year-old daughter, Vonnie, are living in Eastham but still looking for a year-round place), van der Vyver is turning his attention to other experiments.
Among them, he says, is an exploration of native ferments, using indigenous yeasts from the vineyard to catalyze a wine’s primary fermentation — one more step, he says, in making wine that draws its specialness from place.
ON THE LANDSCAPE
A Eulogy for 2 Truro Trees Felled by Nor’easter
The Siberian elm and silver maple were neighbors on Shore Road
TRURO — In the early morning hours of Oct. 27, the night of the recent nor’easter, a tremendous gust of wind came swooping down over the ocean, across the tops of waves, and up over the dune at Highland Light. It ripped through the pines, hunkered low, swept across the highway and over corduroy rows of grapevines, finally slamming into the tallest thing it met: a Siberian elm that had stood on the property that is now Truro Vineyards for about 150 years. The branches of the elm strained, gave, and broke apart, leaving the tree damaged beyond salvation.
The elm was a rare giant, 70 feet tall, with a spread of about the same. It watched over the property for generations, casting its shade over the great lawn. It was a steadfast anchor, holding enormous space, defining the landscape.
On a mild November day, Kristen Roberts, an owner of the family-run Truro Vineyards, sits down near the giant stump to tell the tree’s story. As is true with most stories about old trees, this one begins, “I don’t know for sure, but I was told….”
The story goes that Capt. Atkins Hughes, a previous inhabitant of the estate, planted the elm sometime between 1832 and 1870. It was planted at the same time as the well-loved Chinese mulberry that still stands on the great lawn.
“The trees came from overseas and were planted for the captain’s wife, Amelia,” says Roberts. “It’s a love story.”
When she drove to the vineyard the morning after the storm, Roberts remembers, “I felt it when I pulled in. It felt like a death.” She is not the only one mourning the tree. “We got so many emails saying, ‘I’m so sorry for your loss,’ ” she says, “the way you do when someone dies.”
In sight of the Siberian elm, just across a meadow of little bluestem, lies another tree. A giant silver maple, nearly 100 years old, is on her side, a massive hole torn in the earth where her roots broke and lifted from the ground. The silver maple had stood about 60 feet tall, with a giant canopy of the same width. It was planted around 1930, when the house it shaded was built.
Somehow, when the maple fell, it left the house unscathed. Its new owners, Stephen Orr and Chad Jacobs, will miss the tree. It was a presence and a personality on the property, they say, and it offered a connection to the history of the land. “We named the tree Jeanette,” Orr says, “after the original owner of the house.”
Orr says he imagines his maple and the elm across the street growing up together and notes the strange sadness of their both being taken by the same storm.
Looking over the leaves of the maple’s canopy, which just a few days before had waved far overhead, Orr admits he was anthropomorphizing the old trees. “We see them as old beings,” he says. “When they die, it’s like losing a wise old soul.”
Orr and Jacobs are searching for silver linings. They will build a vegetable garden where the old tree stood. And plant another tree. Farther from the house.
Back across the field of bronze seed heads waving in the breeze, stands the Vineyards’ Chinese mulberry, a survivor. It has been on a regular pruning, feeding, and maintenance program, as the elm had been, too, says Ken MacPhee, an arborist with Bartlett Tree Service and the man in charge of taking care of the trees.
“The elm had seven brace rods and was full of supporting cables,” says MacPhee. “We did yearly pruning on it to decrease its weight load,” he adds. “The mulberry is full of rods and cables, too. We feed it regularly. Old trees need that just like we need our vitamins as we get older.
“You look at older trees and all they’ve been through,” MacPhee says. “They’ve stood the test of time. It’s sad to lose them.”
The mulberry is a fairy-tale tree. It is perhaps only 40 feet high, but its span is nearly twice that. It is a snarl of limbs so sinuous and winding they appear to be in motion. “Supposedly, it’s the oldest fruiting mulberry in New England,” says Roberts. The tree glows in the night, wrapped in strings of elegant white lights, like a bride in a wedding dress, a celebration of her graceful mass.
People want to get married under this tree, Roberts tells me. “They want to be a part of its story, of the love story of these trees,” she says. “It’s a comfort to people.”
The mulberry is a story in physical form. It wears its scars in plain sight. Old trees bear all their wounds for anyone to see, and they are more stunning, authentic, and complex for it. We can see struggles overcome, losses endured, scars healed into beautiful knots. Old trees show us that our stories are what make us who we are.
They say it’s important to speak the names of our lost loved ones, as a way of keeping them with us. Orr, Jacobs, and Roberts are saving the wood from their fallen trees to build something special. That way, their stories will continue to be told.
INDIE PUNK
Mal Blum Returns to Live Music
Uncovering a new sound in passionate, grungy anthems
When Mal Blum performs at Truro Vineyards this Saturday, hosted by Twenty Summers, it will be their first concert since the start of the pandemic.
“I turned down other gigs because I just didn’t feel ready,” says Blum, who uses they/them pronouns. “I’m a pretty neurotic person in general and, like, a literal hypochondriac.” Because the Twenty Summers concert is outdoors and socially distanced, it seemed like “a good way to dip my toe back in.” Plus, Blum hasn’t been to the Outer Cape — Provincetown specifically — since a visit in high school.
“It’s sort of like riding a bike, in that I’ve been performing professionally for a decade,” explains Blum. “You don’t really forget. Once you get up there, you remember what to do. And it’s not like I haven’t been playing music this whole time — just not in a live capacity.” This past year, Blum did a series of webcasts called “Mal’s Big Night.”
“The other thing is, my voice dropped pretty significantly over quarantine,” says Blum. “I’ve been on testosterone for two years on a low dose. I don’t know what happened over quarantine, but it did a drop. So, I’ve been re-finding my range. I’ll have to put together a set list and see which of my old songs I want to put on there and which ones I need to practice.”
Blum grew up in New York. “I’m from an area called Airmont or Monsey or Montebello, depending on who you are, but it’s all the same zip code,” they say. “I think they made a distinction because Monsey is a very observant Jewish area. My family is Jewish, but we’re Reform.”
Blum picked up the guitar as a 14-year-old. They started writing songs, performing, and recording with high school friends. “I look back on that time pretty fondly, because even though I was struggling with a lot of stuff, I had a good group of friends,” says Blum. “It was nice to have the freedom to creatively explore. Now, the flip side of that is the internet was a thing, and I started putting music on it way too young, frankly.”
Blum self-released their first album at age 17 — they have since “successfully scrubbed it from the internet” — but this set a pattern for sharing music directly with fans. Blum attended the conservatory at SUNY Purchase — during and after that time, they self-released three more albums: Goodnight Sugarpop in 2008, Every Time You Go Somewhere in 2011, and Tempest in a Teacup in 2013.
“The reason for that is that no record label would sign me, which is often the case,” Blum says. “At a certain point, you think it’s because you’re green, and then you start to get a chip on your shoulder. Once you have fans, you’re like, ‘What the hell, guys? Do I suck or is it because I’m gay?’ The evidence is that people like my music — they come to my shows. At this point, this would be a profitable venture for you. You either just don’t like me or it’s the homophobia and transphobia.”
Blum did finally sign with punk label Don Giovanni Records, releasing You Look a Lot Like Me in 2015 and Pity Boy in 2019.
“During that album cycle for You Look a Lot Like Me, I publicly changed my pronouns, and that was a whole issue with the press company we were using, because they wouldn’t do it,” says Blum. “Right before Pity Boy came out is when I got top surgery, and after it came out, I started testosterone. So now I think I’m exploring a whole other side of trans identity, which is walking through the world in a different way. I think that’ll probably come out in the next full-length album.” Before then, they are planning a release of country songs written during the pandemic.
Many of Blum’s lyrics are about identity as well as mental health. “Things Still Left to Say” is about being in the closet. “See Me” is about being misunderstood and misidentified: “I don’t belong/ Though it helps to play along/ Why can’t they see me when I’m right here?” They are passionate, slightly grungy anthems — lying somewhere between punk, rock, pop, and indie — about topics usually missing from the schoolyard.
For Blum, voice has significance both literally and metaphorically. “My voice was the main thing I was worried about when I started testosterone, because this is how I make my living,” they say. “I’m not a strong singer, but I have a sound and people seem to like it. Do I want to start messing with it?”
Blum realized, however, that the way others described that voice — comparing it to the voice of other singers — did not match their self-conception. “Some people experience dysphoria [a sense of feeling out of place in one’s body] where they’re hyper aware of things they don’t like,” explains Blum. “Then, some people, like me, experience dysphoria where they’re so removed that they don’t realize how others perceive them. Now, when I listen back to stuff I recorded over the years, I sound really young but also really timid.
“Voice is held up to you as one of the things with gender affirming hormone treatment that doesn’t go back if you decide to go off,” continues Blum. “So, I think a lot of people have anxieties about it. But for me, I just had to lean into it, and I’m glad I did. I’m still learning how to wield it, and live will be a new endeavor. But I think it’s going to be fun.”
Pas Mal
The event: Mal Blum in concert
The time: Saturday, Aug. 14 at 8 p.m.; doors open at 7 p.m.
The place: Truro Vineyards, 11 Shore Road
The cost: $30 at 20summers.org
In the Weeds (Mon.)
Vinegrass, a nonprofit championing American Roots music, will hold a fundraiser with bluegrass aficionados AJ Lee & Blue Summit at Truro Vineyards, 11 Shore Road, on Monday, Aug. 16, 6:30 p.m. There will also be a silent auction, cash bar, and provisions from the Crush Pad food truck. Tickets are $30 at vinegrass.org.
Concert in the Vineyard
Twenty Summers’ concert series at Truro Vineyards, 11 Shore Road, kicks off with Mozelle Andrulot and Mike Flanagan on Friday, July 16th at 8 p.m. Expect an evening of jazz, blues, and R&B. The signature warmth of Andrulot’s voice will be set against the cool sounds of Flanagan, a.k.a. MikeMRF, an award-winning songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who regularly performs in Provincetown. Tickets are $30 at 20summers.org.
Twenty Summers Concerts on Tap
Twenty Summers has announced its summer lineup of concerts at the Truro Vineyards. Normally, these concerts would happen at the Hawthorne Barn, but, because of Covid, they will take place outdoors this year.
The series kicks off with Mozelle Andrulot and Mike Flanagan on Friday, July 16th. Doors open at 7 p.m., concert at 8 p.m. Tickets are $30 at 20summers.org. There will be a full bar and Blackfish’s Crush Pad food truck.
“Music is really what brought me to the Barn,” says program coordinator Alice Gong. She wanted to include local musicians as well as ones from farther away. Andrulot, for example, grew up in Eastham, and regularly performs at Tin Pan Alley, the Mews, and the Fox and Crow. Flanagan, who performs and directs in Provincetown, has released three albums under the name MikeMRF.
Luna, a band from New York City, performs on Friday, July 30th. The band, which formed in 1991, disbanded in 2005, and then reunited in 2015, consists of Dean Wareham on vocals and guitar, Britta Phillips on bass, Sean Eden on guitar, and Lee Wall on drums.
New York−based musician Mal Blum, dubbed “punk’s greatest hidden treasure” by Stereogum, performs on Saturday, August 14th. Blum, who is transgender, reflects on coming out in songs such as “Things Still Left to Say” and “See Me.”
But the denouement will be a rare Cape concert by Bosq on Saturday, August 28th. Bosq is a world-renowned DJ who grew up in Brewster and now lives in Colombia. His music — which combines Afro-Latin, disco, funk, reggae, house, and hip-hop — has been featured in film and television shows such as The Catch, You’re the Worst, and Broad City.
Film Fest to Honor Riz Ahmed
The Provincetown International Film Festival (PIFF) announced last week that its 2021 Excellence in Acting Award will go to Riz Ahmed, recently Oscar-nominated for his role in Sound of Metal. Ahmed will appear in a virtual conversation during the “hybrid” festival, which will be screening live at the Waters Edge Cinema and virtually from June 16th to 25th. Passes are available at provincetownfilm.org.
The British-Pakistani actor will also be represented at the festival by the film Mogul Mowgli, which he co-wrote, produced, and stars in. It’s the semi-autobiographical story of a British-Pakistani rapper who, when brought down by a serious illness, is forced to reckon with his past and his family.
Also announced: a virtual talk with TV show-runner Joey Soloway (Transparent) and filmmaker Doane Tulugaq Avery, as well as a live event at the Truro Vineyards with producer Christine Vachon and writer-director Daniel Minahan, collaborators on the 1996 film I Shot Andy Warhol and on the new Netflix series Halston. Novelist Wally Lamb will be the speaker at this year’s Evan Lawson Brunch, live at Bubala’s by the Bay.
That’s the Spirit
Truro Vineyards is holding a winter cocktail contest. Submit your recipe, featuring a South Hollow Spirits product, through Thursday, January 21st by emailing [email protected]. Finalists will win complimentary tastings; first place will win a $100 gift card.
This event is ongoing.
Chill Out
Truro Recreation presents “Chillin’ With Santa” on Saturday, December 19th, from 10 a.m. to noon. Santa will be giving out gifts and posing for photos at Truro Vineyards, 11 Shore Road. Registration for children 15 and under is free at truroma.myrec.com.
Bazaar-o-World
Truro Vineyards is hosting a socially distant Outdoor Holiday Bazaar on Friday, November 27th, and Saturday, November 28th. Each day, there are two-hour sessions starting at 11 a.m., 1 and 3 p.m. Enjoy cocktails, food from the Crush Pad food truck, and shopping by local vendors. Reservations are $1 per person, to benefit the Homeless Prevention Council, at trurovineyardsofcapecod.com.
Bazaar-o-World
Truro Vineyards is hosting a socially distant Outdoor Holiday Bazaar on Friday, November 27th, and Saturday, November 28th. Each day, there are two-hour sessions starting at 11 a.m., 1 and 3 p.m. Enjoy cocktails, food from the Crush Pad food truck, and shopping by local vendors. Reservations are $1 per person, to benefit the Homeless Prevention Council, at trurovineyardsofcapecod.com.
GALLERY
Outer Cape Households Make It Work
Carving out space for the new work/life balance
Working from home. Like it or not, it’s a new reality for many of us. And while some may be lucky enough to have a dedicated space with an actual desk, others are getting creative with what they have. We asked readers to send pictures of their workspaces. We’re adding other examples on the Independent’s website to show how more of our Outer Cape neighbors are making their homes into offices and classrooms.
So far, every conversation about workspaces turns up a helpful tip or two on how to preserve professional and personal sanity: look for an underused corner, think small, keep clutter under control, add a few creature comforts, and situate near natural light. And when all else fails, go for the right kind of distraction by getting outside.
Want to add your working-from-home picture and advice to our online gallery? Email [email protected].
If your image is going to be beamed out there, it’s a good idea to think about the background people will see. Liesel Wilbers is a school social worker in West Yarmouth. To work from her Wellfleet home, she repurposed her personal vision board to create a cheerful background for videos she sends to students and families.
When Anne Stout, who works for the Chatham Bars Inn, realized she’d be working for weeks from her home in Eastham, she bought what she calls her Murphy desk: a fold-up desk with nooks for storage that can be neatly stowed out of sight at the end of the day.
The Rev. Kate Wilkinson, minister of the Unitarian Universalist Meeting House of Provincetown, delivers her sermons from a home altar, here adorned for Easter, that she composed in her basement.
Eastham Library Director Debra DeJonker-Berry likes the unstructured feeling of working from the sofa. The beautiful view through a big window helps. The downside of a cozy spot? Dogs do have a tendency to move in on your creature comforts.
Myya Beck’s multitasking space meets the demands of teaching kindergarten to her son, Beckett, while operating her Wellfleet business, Heart Core Studio remotely.
Amy Raff, director of the Provincetown Library, sets up a spot in her kitchen to work. What draws her there is the natural light. This room offers bright windows that lift her spirits on these days spent in isolation.
Co-owner of Truro Vineyards Kristen Roberts does it all at the kitchen island.
David Simpson and Kathy Fletcher, who run the nonprofit AOK out of their Wellfleet home, find inspiration from facing desks.
Rob Doane, Community Development Partnership CFO, keeps his hand-built desk scrupulously neat, and has headphones within reach.
Anna Nielsen, youth services librarian at the Wellfleet Library, keeps the essentials nearby in her home office.
RESILIENCE
A Powerful Distillation for Community Health
South Hollow offers gifts of homemade hand sanitizer
TRURO — Townspeople were lined up outside the gift shop at Truro Vineyards and South Hollow Spirits on Shore Road on Saturday, respecting the social distance and patiently waiting their turn to be admitted one at a time.
