Suzanne Stewart
Staff Writer
After a dreary week of wind and rain, the sun pushed aside the clouds Saturday just in time for the 33rd RoadKill Cook-off and Autumn Harvest Festival in Marlinton.
The gazebo park was transformed into a cooking arena for six teams to pit their roadkill recipes against one another, and the streets in town were filled with vendors selling crafts and delicious foods, as well as non-profits spreading awareness about their causes.
This was the third festival since the COVID-19 pandemic put everything on hold, and Pocahontas County Chamber of Commerce President Bill Jordan said it’s been good to get back into the swing of things with the one-of-a-kind festival.
“I think it was a good day – tons of vendors and six cooks,” he said.
Indeed, it seemed the crowd was pleased as word had reached the far corners of the country that roadkill was back on the menu. Jordan said he met people from Massachusetts, Michigan, California and Georgia who heard about the festival and couldn’t wait to see what all the fuss was about.
There were several out-of-staters who came to feature the cook-off on their podcasts and even a journalist with The Washington Post took in the events of the weekend.
Everything kicked off Friday evening with the Rockin’ Redneck Square Dance at the opera house before the big day on Saturday.
The crowd was at a record capacity of nearly 7,000 people, with around 700 partaking of the RoadKill goodness.
“We usually project ten percent of people taste the food, so we had almost seven thousand people there, according to our ticket sales,” Jordan said.
Among those taste testers, of course, were the three judges who had a tough decision to make as they reviewed the entries from the six teams. Two of the original judges had to drop out at the last minute, but thankfully, judge Candace Nelson, director of marketing and communication for Capitol Market and food columnist for the Charleston Gazette-Mail, had a couple friends she was able to recruit.
Alex Burdette, of Milton, is a Charleston-based artist and glassblower. He has been named as an emerging artist in the West Virginia Department of Culture and History.
Ironically, the other judge, Jim Adkins, of Barboursville, is also a glassblower. He joined a glassblowing apprenticeship and quickly gained the skills to make beautiful work. He is also a renowned chef with decades of experience in the restaurant industry in West Virginia.
Adkins gained his love of the culinary arts from his grandmother, JoJo, who taught him how to cook.
After tasting the six dishes, all with quirky roadkill related stories, the judges announced the winners.
First place went to the High Rocks Grow Getters for their venison stir fry.
“We had to scrape the deer out of the road, but all the other things came from the High Rocks gardens,” team spokesperson Sarah Riley said.
It was High Rocks’ first year competing and since, according to team member Steven Saffel, a deer hit the produce truck while they were loading it, they decided to compete and cook up the rascally deer with their fresh produce.
Second place and People’s Choice went to the Pendleton Community Bank Buck Busters, for their Buck Bustin’ Bumper Beans, which featured venison and three types of beans, a little kick of heat, cornbread and a hit of sour cream.
There is an official RoadKill Cook-off Queen. Hailey Pugh received the crown this year, but no king. If there was a RoadKill king, most would say it should be Kendall Beverage.
Beverage has led the Pendleton Community Bank Buck Busters team for several years, leading them to victory several times. But that’s not why he should be RoadKill king. Beverage has become an unofficial spokesperson for the cook-off and has recruited competitors for the past three years to help the cook-off grow even bigger.
“I’m here to promote the festival,” he said. “I think we really need to try to build this up to have at least twelve to fifteen teams every year.”
The PCB Buck Busters started competing in 2017 and the team was happy to see the festival return after the pandemic.
“We’re excited to have the festival back up and just keep going,” Beverage said. “Everything looks great.”
Third place went to Grant County’s Ditch Divas, in their second year of competing.
Led by Kayla Kuh, the team came across quite the sight when they were out hunting bear for their dish.
“Our bear was hit in the road by an egg truck while we were hunting, and we didn’t want to waste anything, so we decided to cook it up,” she said.
Going with a breakfast theme, the team concocted a bear and scrambled egg dish.
Receiving the Showmanship Award was the River Rats team with their French bistro theme. Led by Kathy Mosesso, the team was a family affair with Margaret Worth, Katie Workman and her daughter, Iris, and Mosesso’s grandsons, Silas and Victor Dean, rounding out the group.
The team served road to table venison ratatouille served with fresh rat droppings.
Instead of using rat as the main ingredient, they were instead part of the team, helping cook, just like in the Disney movie Ratatouille in which Remy the rat helps French chef Linguini hone his cooking skills.
Mosesso credited Beverage with enticing her to form her team this year.
“Kendall Beverage is the best community person we have, and he called and asked,” she said. “I’ve had an idea about this theme for a while, so I must have had a weak moment [and decided to enter].”
Also competing was the RoadKill Clean Up Crew from the Pocahontas County Day Report Center, led by day report director Jodi Gragg-Zickefoose. The team served Bumper Bambi wraps with brain sauce.
Gragg-Zickefoose said she wanted to get some of her clients together to participate in a community event. The team also included Day Report administrative assistant Stephanie Bennett and her husband, Ian, and Gragg-Zickefoose’s son, Bailey.
Another first time team, Lisa Winebrimmer and Brandon Cline, were also recruited and they decided it sounded like something fun to do together.
“Somebody called me because I love to cook,” Cline said.
“We thought we’d try it out,” Winebrimmer added.
The team made a stew featuring venison and frog legs, a unique combination that Winebrimmer said goes together well.
Luckily the week-long rain showers filled up the ponds and made it easier to catch all those frogs for the stew.
Roadkill wasn’t the only thing on the menu Saturday. The Hudson Cream West Virginia Biscuit Bake Off took place at the opera house with entrants producing their best traditional, savory and sweet biscuit recipes for the judges. Local baker Autumn Warder was joined by RoadKill judges Nelson and Adkins who pulled double duty.
In the Youth Category, winners were: first place, Olivia Barkley; second place, Kaidence Cutlip; and third place, Allyson Alderman.
Premier Category winners were: first place, Kathy Irvine; second place, Homer Cobb; and third place, Joey Smith.
The People’s Choice award went to Ollie Barkley for her cinnamon sweet biscuits.
This year’s festival will go down in history as a beautiful sunny day that brought out the fun for everyone.