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Last Saturday (11/27) when I was home for the weekend I got the opportunity to attend the Bainville Harvest Festival. The Bainville Harvest Festival was a first annual fall chili supper that I heard was organized by a few wives of local farmers, to celebrate the awesome yields and record high spring wheat and durum prices. I was home for the weekend to do some mule deer hunting in eastern Montana, as I get a tag out there every year and have always had fun out there. Anyway, when my brother and I stopped in at the Welcome Stop Saturday evening, the local (and only) gas station in Bainville and saw my dad and uncle were there and they told us there was a chili feed downtown at the Legion that they were going to check out, so we decided to meet them down there. Arriving downtown, just a couple blocks down, we noticed there were a lot of people out in the streets and my brother remarked that he hadn't seen this many people in Bainville since the centennial celebration back in July of 2006. We found a place to park a few blocks down and walked down to the Legion. As soon as we walked in we were both greeted by almost everyone, since we pretty much grew up there (it’s only a mile from our family farm) and hadn’t seen a lot of them for awhile. The supper was a simple one. It consisted of chili that was served out of several crockpots that people had brought with them, and there was also garlic bread and cheese bread. It was interesting to take note of how everyone acted as I had never done this before, the room was mostly segregated men and women and after people finished eating they would sit and visit or move over to another table to visit someone else they hadn’t seen in awhile. The local farmers and ranchers, my dad and uncle included, sure were celebrating over the high prices they received for their durum and spring wheat this fall. The elevator reached a peak price of $17.85/bushel of durum and many farmers were able to sell when the price was between $16-$17/bushel. These were phenomenal prices and certainly record highs, many also sold their spring wheat for about $7-$8/bushel. This fall certainly contained profits and good times to be had by all, and the celebration didn’t stop with the harvest festival as many went to the bar when the dinner ended. The Bainville Harvest Festival was the first of its kind, and everyone enjoyed themselves and the chili. It sounds like it will become a fall tradition, regardless of commodity prices.