Stovetops sizzled and venison roasted over an open fire outside of Grange Hall in West Tisbury on Monday afternoon during the Vineyard’s Local Wild Food Challenge. It was the first time the challenge was hosted since 2019, before the pandemic.
The annual culinary competition challenges individuals and teams to cook a dish using at least one wild ingredient obtained from the Island’s environment through fishing, hunting, foraging, or growing. The dishes can be cooked and prepared using any method, and professionals and amateurs of all ages can compete.
The event was hosted in partnership with the Vineyard Preservation Trust and featured local vendors, live music by Johnny Hoy and the Bluefish, and a deer-processing demonstration by Stephen Pond, a local hunter and owner of Chappaquiddick Construction. Chef John Thurgood won the grand prize with his green crab dish.
Chef Billy Manson, who founded the challenge in his home country of New Zealand in 2009, said at the Grange that this year’s challenge confirmed that enthusiasm for the competition is alive and well. Manson originally founded the event to celebrate the culinary creativity and resourcefulness of individuals in several countries.
“People who may not have experienced it before are coming in and enjoying it, and then you’ve got a lovely local old guard who are stoked that it’s back,” Manson said. “It’s an affirmation that the concept and the community and the Island’s bounties are well and truly intact.”
Manson said that Wild Food both unites locals and helps visitors learn more about the lifestyles of the year-round community.
“It’s important, especially after the end of a big summer … for the community to get back together, the harvest to be celebrated, and the skill sets of all of these people to be celebrated,” Manson said. “Then [visitors] get to know the real Martha’s Vineyard.”
