“Three, two, one. Fire in the hole!” The first attempt was a misfire after the trebuchet balked, but the crowd remained patient. “Let’s try this again,” said the operator. “Three, two, one. Fire in the hole!” A pumpkin sailed through the air, landing in a field at the Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society in West Tisbury.
“Boom!” cried the onlookers as the pumpkin went splat.
The smell of smashed pumpkin wafted over the fair grounds all day at the fourth annual Living Local Harvest Festival on Saturday, where Morning Glory Farm’s catapult was one of many interactive activities. Festival goers learned, danced and most importantly ate their way through celebrating the fall harvest.
“It was the best harvest fest yet,” organizer Randi Baird said. “The weather was fabulous but there were a lot of different components that really came together.”
Organizers stressed education and fun this year; a lecture series that went on throughout the day included beekeeping, green affordable housing programs, clean energy and current Aquinnah environmental projects. Inside the main hall, exhibitors presented demonstrations, including David Whitmon with his velomobile and Jefferson Munroe with the Island Grown Initiative mobile poultry unit.
Maggie Downey from the Cape Light Compact was busy handing out free energy efficient light bulbs and collecting old air conditioners and dehumidifiers in exchange for a rebate. “It’s overwhelming, there are lots of people interested in doing energy audits,” she said, adding: “Everyone’s interested to be here and it’s good energy.”
Chilmark shellfish constable Isaiah Scheffer demonstrated how to filet a fish and shuck oysters at the Martha’s Vineyard/Dukes County Fishermen’s Association booth. “Everyone seems to be really interested,” Mr. Scheffer said. “We have access to a lot of wonderful natural resources . . . people should know they can catch their own food.”
People could taste bread from Orange Peel Bakery in Aquinnah, sample wildflower and beetlebung honey or crunch into golden delicious, honey crisp, McIntosh and Macoun apples.
“The people who had exhibits in the hall . . . really thought about what they were going to put out,” Ms. Baird said. “It was a nice display of what our community offers and was really informative.”
With a long line all day for soup and burgers from Morning Glory Farm and burritos from Christine Mendoza, the tasting tables were a big hit. Tunes from Island musicians played all day thanks to community radio station WVVY, keeping the food tent buzzing with dancing feet.
Outside the main hall, children carved pumpkins and crawled through a hay bale maze. They had the chance to win a free pumpkin from the Farm Institute by guessing which square two calves would fertilize next in a round of bovine bingo.
During the day Chris Fischer sold produce from Beetlebung Farm and fed the fire beneath the pig he roasted for the evening’s potluck dinner. The pig was donated by the Grey Barn in Chilmark. Mr. Fischer began roasting at 11 a.m.; many hours later and after a blessing by the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) Black Brook Singers, he and Eric Glasgow of Grey Barn carved up the pig.
More than 300 people feasted on home-grown chickens, produce and baked goods while listening to music from Good Night Louise. Some sat with strangers, picking up conversation easily, while others sat with friends. John Alley, Allen Whiting and Andrew Woodruff shared a table with Bill Keating, Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress, who was on the Island campaigning for the day.
“It’s real food,” Mr. Keating said.
The zero-waste event yielded a single bag of trash and one of recyclables from the entire day; leftover food was scraped into compost bins. People mingled, kids raced up and down the great hall and farm crews enjoyed a rest from the fields.
“The Agricultural Society has a really great following,” Ms. Baird said. “But there’s a nice young crowd starting to come every year as well as people who want to celebrate the season.”
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