Morning Glory Farm and the Family that Feeds an Island, the story of the largest farm on Martha’s Vineyard, has been named the Best Local Cuisine cookbook in the United States by the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards. The award has placed it into the running for the Best in the World award in this category, to be announced in February in Paris.

The Gourmand World Cookbook Awards is an internationally recognized organization that holds the world’s largest cookbook and drinks book trade fair every year. The competition attracts entries from 136 countries; this year, 6,000 books were submitted. It was founded fifteen years ago by Edouard Cointreau, whose family produces Cointreau liqueur and Cognacs Frapin and Remy Martin from grapes grown on French vineyards owned by the family since 1270.

Morning Glory Farm and the Family that Feeds an Island, published by Island-based Vineyard Stories, tells how the thirty-year-old, second generation farm came to exist and includes seventy recipes from the farm stand, restaurants and well-known Island chefs. Written by Tom Dunlop and photographed by well-known photographer Alison Shaw, the book captures in words and lush photographs the everyday life of the farm, as well as the story of owners James and Deborah Athearn and their two sons, who now run the farm.

The book went into its second 6,000-run printing three weeks after entering stores in the spring. It has been called “an Island classic” by NPR radio.

The Gourmand World Cookbook Awards ceremony is held each year to reward and honor those who “cook with words.” In the past, the ceremony, to be held on Valentine’s Day in Paris, has been held in Germany, Spain, China, Malaysia, and other locations around the globe. Gourmand reviews entries before accepting them, and then places books in one of forty categories; Morning Glory competed against thirteen other books in the Best Local Cuisine category.

The book was the tenth published by Vineyard Stories (www.vineyardstories.com), owned by Jan Pogue. The company was founded in 2005 by Pogue and her late husband, John Walter, who died in September 2008. It specializes in non-fiction about Martha’s Vineyard and Cape Cod. Pogue serves as editor and publisher. She will publish three new books in the spring of 2010, including Schooner, celebrating the launch of the Island-built schooner Rebecca — the largest boat launched from the Vineyard since the election of President Lincoln — and the thirtieth anniversary of Gannon and Benjamin of Vineyard Haven, the only full-time boat yard on either seaboard dedicated exclusively to the design, construction, repair, and maintenance of traditional wooden boats. The book is being written by Tom Dunlop and photographed by Alison Shaw.