It's inevitably hot and hectic, dusty and bittersweet — these four days of waning summer on the Vineyard during the Agricultural Fair held in West Tisbury, Massachusetts.

Thousands of visitors, including island and off-island farmers come from all over for the Midway, the ox pulls, the woodman's contest. These are the last tingling date-nights of summer loves and the first ferris wheel rides for the littlest of ones. Clouds of cotton candy and funnels of fried dough tip and turn like the tilt-o-wheel...while the Volunteer Firemen's brigade keeps the hamburgers grilling — the Island Childrens' School scoops ice cream and tops it off with real whipped cream. Yet it's the women's skillet toss on this last day that fills the bleachers...our whoops and hollers rise above the carnival din for these ladies who heave pans of iron across the pulling ring.

And this year — quietly, a milestone was reached at the Ag Fair's 147th year when two new categories for island grown food were created. Crops from Brazil — taioba and jiló — became the latest in innovative entries after enough homegrowers submitted their prized leaves and 'garden eggs' for competition. Ribbons — 1st, 2nd, 3rd's and Honorable Mentions, were awarded to the island's most recent immigrants amongst the more traditional entries of supersized zucchinis, bulging tomatoes and sweet-sweet corns.

Because of Island Grown Initiative's collaboration with UMass Amherst's Ethnic Crops program the estimated 3,000+ Brazilians who live on Martha's Vineyard can now grow their own food — food from their homeland. And the commercial farms who are trialing these crops: Morning Glory Farm, Whippoorwill CSA and Bayes Norton Farm — all have new, enthusiastically dedicated customers. The average time to sellout taioba from farmstand to customer: 7 minutes!

Already there's talk in the street about next year's Ag Fair, the neighborly competition and new entries to come....like the maxixe — a lemony cucumber and abóbora japonesa — a hard squash with condensed orange flesh.

Interestingly enough, my friend Elio's been very quiet about how he grew red ribbon-ed taioba and the double blue-ribbon winner Neromar just gives me a humble look along with one of those I-don't-know-how-I-did-it shrugs. Maybe...there's a trade to be done...my blueberry pie recipe for some growing tips so then even I could be a contender, next year.