(The Inter-Mountain/Joe
Blankenship)
RAMPIN’ IT UP — Several hundred people
swarmed the Elkins City Park Saturday for the
14th annual International Ramp Festival and
Cook-off. The fun included local entertainment,
taste-testing and various games and activities.
Participating in the festivities was cook-off
judge Delegate Allen Evans, R-48th District,
above, who appears to enjoy himself as he pops an
entry into his mouth.
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By JENNIFER BENNETT
And LEAH DEITZ
Staff Writers
Amid a several-day
stretch of rain, the sun appeared Saturday just
in time to brighten up the Elkins City Park for
the 14th annual International Ramp Festival and
Cook-off.
Sponsored by the Ramp Festival Bureau of the city
of Elkins and the Randolph County Convention and
Visitors Bureau, this year’s event attracted
hundreds of people to the park to taste, smell
and cook West Virginia’s most fragrant
vegetable.
“It went well,” said Randolph County
Chamber of Commerce and CVB Director Brenda
Pritt. “The weather was perfect. It makes or
breaks the ramp festival. It turned out very
nice.”
Pritt said that at any one time, there were 300
to 400 people milling about the park, enjoying
local entertainment, taking part in games and
activities and sampling the many varieties of
ramp-flavored food cooked up by vendors.
More than $1,600 was awarded in prizes for the
now infamous ramp cook-off. The “ramped up
steak sandwich” prepared by Melanie Campbell
from the Mingo Room captured the $500 top prize.
Campbell also won the most repugnant award and
was given a basket full of breath mints and
Listerine.
Other winners included: second place, Terri
Weiford and Heather Harman with the Randolph
County Emergency Squad, $400 for their “ramp
dogs;” third place, Joe Gainer and Zoe with
WDNE FM, $300 for Canadian ramps; fourth place,
Liz Marshall with TESI Catering, $200 for ramp
chowder; and fifth place, Greg Binns with Good
Energy Foods, $100 for low-carb ramp wraps.
The best booth $50 award was given to WDNE AM’s
Howie and Nick for their Formula 12-40 theme. Fox’s
Pizza won $100 in a cooks raffle drawing. In the
Taster’s Choice competition, the crowd voted
Sunken Garden Day’s Inn as their favorite.
The Sunken Garden was awarded a gift package to
Snowshoe Mountain.
The sunshine may have made the Ramp Festival but
Mountain State Forest Festival organizers were
wishing for rain over the weekend.
The MSFF Gun Show on Saturday and Sunday had
about 3,000 people for the event. In past years
the gun show has boasted as many as 7,000 people.
“I wish it would have rained,” said the
MSFF’s Bryan McLaughlin. “But I am glad
that the Ramp Festival was successful because of
the weather.”
The event featured approximately 50 venders.
“Some vendors sold up to 50 or 60 guns,”
McLaughlin said. “I am actually very pleased
all things considering.”
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