The 17th annual Living Local Harvest Festival returned to the Agricultural Hall this past weekend. This year’s event focused its attention on the issue of trash. Sessions throughout the day focused on the life cycle of the things we throw away, how to reduce waste, and the basics of composting. About 1,000 people crammed the Agricultural Hall in West Tisbury to make a circuit of the many tables, which included a touch tank with scallops and mussels from the Martha’s Vineyard Shellfish group, a hydroponic growing tower from Thimble Farm, a take home DIY planter made from plastic bottles and perlite, and food samples from Morning Glory Farm.
Local initiatives Island Grown Gleaning, Composting on the Coast, and the LOVEmv Don’t Litter campaign spoke about ways to rethink how we dispose of our trash. Scott Golden from the MV Charter School described how he got students involved in solving the logistical problem of composting in schools while Noli Taylor and Will Conway from Island Grown Schools outlined their composting project at MVRHS.
Unfortunately, the animal guests had to stay at home due to the inclement weather and Sonnyside could not offer animal rides, but entertainment abounded thanks to several musical guests. David Hannon, Helloizio Gomes, Leonard Alves, Oziel Santos, Sabrina Leuning, Don Groover, and a Young Fiddlers Showcase kept tunes flowing from the music tent behind the Ag Hall alongside food vendors The Loco Taco, Morning Glory Farm, and the Manku Food Truck.
“It was exciting to see the participants to rally around the ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’ theme,” said event director Nevette Previd in an email. “It created some real camaraderie and energy to get behind a huge island issue.”
This article by Stacey Rupolo originally appeared on mvtimes.com.
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