Photos from the 2016 Boston Local Food Festival

Including scenes from the popular Seafood Throwdown competition. The mystery fish? Dogfish, of course.

By Lloyd Mallison· 9/19/2016, 10:24 a.m.

Photo by Lloyd Mallison

Despite a humid, gray day on Sunday, the annual Boston Local Food Festival returned to the Rose Kennedy Greenway in all its glory. Visitors were able to gorge themselves silly on a veritable smorgasbord of free samples, while supporting local farmers and restaurants at the same time.

For its seventh year, the Boston Local Food Festival encouraged visitors to shop locally, healthily, and sustainably as they shopped for fresh produce, baked goods, and beverages. Check out photos of all the festivities below, including the popular Seafood Throwdown competition: two teams of chefs were pitted against each other to see who would be crowned champion of Fish Stock.

Photo by Lloyd Mallison

Big Rock Oyster Company brought the most beautiful of speckled vessels for their bivalves to chill in.

Photo by Lloyd Mallison

Maple products company, Tonewood, served its maple cream on top of locally sourced goat cheese for festival-goers to try.

Photo by Lloyd Mallison

Koy chef Danny Chang fried up some grub on the Greenway. For $5, visitors could try three of the Korean restaurant’s dumplings.

Photo by Lloyd Mallison

Flour Bakery was in attendance, selling seasonal riffs on Joanne Chang’s famous sticky buns. The sweet treats had apples soaked in apple cider in the center, on top, and apple cider goo to hold the pecans in place. Autumnal enough for you?

Photo by Lloyd Mallison

Maddie Elling served Hostra Hill’s vivid, handmade sauerkraut with a smile.

Photo by Lloyd Mallison

Valerie Rosenberg held up a Red’s Best dogfish for six-year-old Katherine to touch. Playing with your food was highly encouraged at the Boston Local Food Festival.

Photo by Lloyd Mallison

Lizzie Stallone handed out some of Massachusetts-based Spindrift’s fruity flavors to thirsty customers on the warm afternoon.

Photo by Lloyd Mallison

JP Welch explained to a customer how he quit his job 29 years ago to start Justamere Tree Farm, which now taps more than 5,000 maple trees in the Berkshires.

Photo by Lloyd Mallison

One of Big Rock Oyster Company’s shuckers guessed he’d shucked more than half a million (!) oysters over the course of his career. He added to the tally Sunday, keeping the seafood coming as people headed to the seafood portion of the festival, Fish Stock.

Photo by Lloyd Mallison

Former Patriots defensive end and ecologically conscious seafood enthusiast Jarvis Green took photos with fans before beginning his duties as a guest judge at the Seafood Throwdown.

Photo by Lloyd Mallison

Seafood Throwdown emcees Brett Tolley of the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance and Tasha Baker of the Boston Mayor’s Office of Food Initiative warmed the crowd up as Chatham fisherman Doug Feeney unveiled the mystery fish the two teams of chefs would be cooking with: dogfish, or rather, the cape shark. Feeney said he catches 6,000 pounds of the abundant cape shark daily, using sustainable fishing methods.

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Tom Kelly, executive director of the University of New Hampshire’s sustainability institute, was introduced to the crowd as another of the guest judges. The criteria they’d be looking for in the chefs’ finished dishes? Taste, creativity, presentation, and most importantly, use of the whole fish.

Photo by Lloyd Mallison

The chefs ran off to buy ingredients from various vendors to accompany their cape shark. An hour and a half later, and team Sunset Farm chef Philip Robinson was putting the finishing touches—a brown butter sauce made with the shark fin—on his dish: pan-seared cape shark atop a local root vegetable hash.

Photo by Lloyd Mallison

Team Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center scrambled to finish their cape shark lettuce wraps. Chef Andre Silva (left) assembled the wraps with fresh pico de gallo, chopped almonds, queso blanco, and radishes.

Photo by Lloyd Mallison

Sports stars, they’re just like us! They, too, take like to take photos of their food.

Photo by Lloyd Mallison

Ali Donargo of the Chatham Harvester Association, the third guest judge, tried team Sunset Farm’s dish.

Photo by Lloyd Mallison

Team Sunset Farm was crowned the winner by a close margin. Chefs Reggie Fabian and Philip Robinson offered a handshake to Andre Silva and Gary Visnick.

Photo by Lloyd Mallison

With the Seafood Throwdown thrown down, it was time for dessert. Boston Public Market vendors Red Apple Farm served up its signature apple cider donuts near the Greenway Carousel.

Photo by Lloyd Mallison

Fellow BPM vendors and local chocolatiers Taza Chocolate offered samples of its seasonal variety, cranberry pumpkin spice, with crunchy sprouted pumpkin seeds embedded in the dark chocolate squares.