A Christmas Present from Martha's Vineyard Past

Editor's note: In December, 2011, I'd been living in the northern California wine country for more than 14 years and was still feeling homesick for Martha's Vineyard. Then, an unexpected present arrived:

The package came from my mother, Thursday afternoon, in an overnight envelope with a shocking amount of postage. I phoned her on the Massachusetts island of Martha's Vineyard, where she still lives in our old home place a few blocks from the house where she grew up.

"It's your Big Present," she said.

"Should I open it now?" I asked.

"Sure, why not?" she said, with what I'm pretty sure was feigned nonchalance. So I did.

It appeared to be some kind of ... wait, was this the "family cookbook" she and cousin Nancy had been talking about for so long? What a great gift idea, and they'd finally finished! "Thanks, Mom!" I said happily.

Then, phone still to my ear, I opened the book; and as I began to turn the pages I found not only recipes, but a time machine that took me all the way back to my great-grandparents' days, when the Vineyard had just a few thousand residents even in summertime.

My Mom, Margaret, and cousin Nancy had gathered their own photographs and recipes, then sweet-talked and strong-armed the rest of the family into contributing many more. It took them years, but the cookbook they created is also a priceless family photo album and memoir covering five generations of seasonal and year-round Island living.

Here are my Mom and Nancy and the rest of their tribe of cousins, little children of the 1940s and 1950s playing together in Katama and Edgartown; and here we are in the 1970s, the next generation, romping the same island and sailing the same waters. One photo shows Mom standing in front of her iced-in sailboat on a frozen Edgartown Harbor in 1974, during a winter in which she took us kids sailing on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. Later photos come from weddings and other celebrations.

The two of them also shared written memories of the Vineyard where they grew up sailing, fishing, clamming and foraging for wild Island treasures including strawberries, mushrooms, mustard and sorrel.

"When Mum caught her winning striped bass, it was brought upstairs and shown to all the sleeping children who couldn't imagine a fish bigger than they!" my cousin wrote in a section I love to reread.

And yes, there are plenty of recipes, some scrawled and stained, some neatly printed, a few virtually illegible—all scanned and printed for posterity.

Turning the pages, I remember serving the Mushroom Roll-Ups and Clam Puffs to Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss of the "Jaws" cast when I was a young teen helping Mom with her catering business, Classic Casseroles.

The Southern branch of the family's famous "Cheesy Grits" souffle and other holiday favorites are there, as well as my cousin Charlie's bread and Uncle John's scrawled "Pump Pie."

This spiral-bound treasure is one of the first things I'd save if the house caught fire; I always know just where it is, usually near to hand.

Could your family create a keepsake like this, for the holidays or a special birthday or anniversary? Maybe now's the time to start talking about it. Even if you don't wind up creating a full-on cookbook, it's always fun to remember and celebrate family, food and special places like the Vineyard.

An earlier version of this essay was posted on Patch Dec. 27, 2011.