RICHMOND COUNTY — The 2026 Wild Foods Cook Off is scheduled for Tuesday, April 7th, at the Sandhills Rod and Gun Club, 149 O.G. Reynolds Road in Ellerbe. The Sandhill Rod and Gun Club is a non-profit organization and was formed in the interest of promoting hunting and fishing and to show appreciation of the outdoors and our natural resources by actively cooperating in protection of forests, soils, waters and natural habitat for fish and game.
For thousands of years, hunting, fishing and foraging was essential to our ancestors’ survival. Today, many of us continue these traditions while also conserving the wildlife around us so that the next generation can carry on the tradition of living off the land and enjoy what Mother Nature has to offer. As our own population booms, conserving our resources and wildlife is more important now than ever before and it’s the sportsman who contributes the most to this effort.
Hunters, anglers, foragers and culinary adventurers alike all look forward to this annual event, where you can taste some rather exotic dishes made of bear, beaver, rattlesnake, green briar and much, much more. Dishes are entered in one of three categories: Wild Game (any meat, including deer, turkey, or fish), non-dessert dishes featuring wild fruits, nuts, or plants, and finally the dessert category, also featuring a wild foraged ingredient.
Interested in throwing your hat in the ring with a favored dish or ingredient? Visit: https://richmond.ces.ncsu.edu/news/2026-wild-foods-cook-off-coming-soon/ to see the rules for participating; anyone entering a dish gets in with two free tickets. No dish? No problem! Tickets are only $5, with children under 6 free.
Check-in for entries begins at 6 p.m. and closes promptly at 6:30 p.m., when tasting and judging begins. Voting is “People’s Choice”: everyone receives one voting ticket for each of the three categories, plus one more to choose the “Best Overall” dish. In addition to bragging rights, there are prizes for the best dish in each category, and the Best Overall winner will receive a great prize as well! While the tickets are being tallied, there will be a presentation by the founding members of the newly formed Sandhills chapter of the NC Native Plant Society.
The North Carolina Native Plant Society offers an array of activities and events that showcase our native plants, their habitats and the ecosystem as a whole. The North Carolina Native Plant Society is also a 501(c) 3 nonprofit with a governing board and local chapters, which includes the Sandhills Chapter!
According to the NC Native Plant Society, the Sandhills is one of the most biodiverse eco-systems in the world. It supports 40% of the biodiversity in NC in just over 1 million acres. This region is characterized by rolling topography with sand covered clay soils and has thousands of stream heads. Often, our region is not typically included on maps of the state’s ecoregions (Mountains, Piedmont, Coastal Plain). When most folks, even professional biologists, think of “Coastal Plain”, they think of the eastern portion, from the estuaries to the Outer Banks. But the Sandhills is usually overlooked as a distinct part of the Coastal Plain. There are a good number of plant species endemic (exist only) to the Sandhills of North Carolina, South Carolina
and Georgia. Interestingly, there are some species found in NC that occur only in the Sandhills. Our soils are different here. Much more coarse and well drained than on the flat portion of the Coastal Plain. Moreover, there is a longer history of controlled burning here than elsewhere in NC because of the longleaf pine and wiregrass ecosystem, which heavily relies on fire.
If you are interested in attending or participating in the Wild Foods Cook Off there is no registration required. Please call the NC Extension Office, Richmond County Center, for additional information, at 910.997.8255, or visit our website, Richmond.ces.ncsu.edu. The Wild Foods Cook Off is sponsored by the Sandhills Rod and Gun Club, N.C. Cooperative Extension, Richmond County, and the Martha Faye Crafters.