The Beverly American Legion Wild Game Dinner drew a large crowd. (Photo by Doug Loyer)

BEVERLY — Giving the area a rare chance to eat meat that most people don’t ordinarily get to savor, the American Legion 389 held its annual Melvin Wainwright Memorial Wild Game Feed on Saturday in Beverly.

The dinner featured dishes such as pheasant and noodles, wild boar meat balls, turtle chowder, quail dressing, duck breasts, deer meatloaf, fried rabbit and squirrel plus Muskingum River catfish.

The popular all-you-can-eat event actually goes back over 50 years when local World War II vets started it. It normally is held in early March to make sure that the food is fresh.

“This goes back a long time,” said Doug Wainwright, Wild Game Committee Chairman. “My dad and a bunch of locals, members of the American Legion, started having a rabbit feed and that turned into what is now called the ‘Melvin Wainwright Memorial Wild Game Feed.’ The money we make off of this, we match and it goes toward ‘Gifts for the Yanks’ which is a program that helps veterans in VA hospitals.”

Doug’s brother, Past Commander Steve Wainwright, estimated that about 150-175 attended the event Saturday.

One of the dishes featured deer meatloaf. (Photo by Doug Loyer)

“This is honestly one of the best turnouts that we have ever had,” said Steve. “Getting the word out and having great weather has really helped.”

Whether the game is boiled, baked, fried, grilled or whatever, it takes time and planning to make sure that it is all ready at the same time.

“We’ve had six or seven guys in the kitchen cooking for the past few days,” said Doug. “This is all wild game that hunters have donated and there are now some new cooks in the kitchen and that means new recipes.”

They also try to have even more obscure game when possible. In years past they have occasionally had rare offerings like bear, elk, moose, snake and alligator. Each year is a little different.

Sons of American Legion member Joe Jackson and several others helped prepare the food.

Bar-B-Q coon is not something you get to sample every day. (Photo by Doug Loyer)

“I’ve been cooking wild game for a long time,” said Jackson. “We get the game out of the freezer earlier in the week and it takes two full days to prepare. It’s all for a good cause. Personally, I’m a rabbit hunter, that’s one of my favorites.”

It was the second time for Brian Douthitt attending the Beverly American Legion Wild Game Dinner and he thought he’d try a little bit of everything. It was the first time for Brian’s friend, Carl Life of Beverly, to experience the event.

“Today, I’m going to try anything that won’t try me first,” smiled Life. “I really like dinners like this because of the people and the environment.”

Linda South and her husband traveled nearly three hours from South Charleston, Ohio, near Springfield, to savor the delicacies.

“The last time I was at this Beverly Wild Game Feed was 38 years ago and I was pregnant with my son,” said South, who used to live in the area. “Nothing is quite like this wild game feed. This is wonderful. I’m a venison person, I love it. But I walk on the wild side and try other stuff too. I have never had pheasant before and I tried that today. It was really good.”

The venison and noodles was a big hit at the wild game feed. (Photo by Doug Loyer)

Brad and Michelle Schwendeman, of Watertown, decided to bring their clan to give the wild game dinner a try.

“This is our first year trying this,” said Brad. “We hunt and thought we’d try something different. The wild boar sausage is really good and everything else also looks delicious.”

Their taste buds varied. Asking the Schwendeman kids what their favorite food item of the evening was, Christian choose beaver, Brenner preferred rabbit, Kayla liked the deer and noodles and family guest Grace Erlwein choose the deer baked steak.

Amy and Don Potter, of Marietta, enjoyed tasting the out-of-the-ordinary food.

“Make sure you get here early,” said Amy. “The quail and rice was good as well as the duck poppers wrapped in bacon.”

“I liked the squirrel brains,” smiled Don. “It was kind of a sweet meat with a consistency like pudding.”