RIVERHURST — With the weekend approaching, my wife/partner wanted to do something.
“Summer is half over and we haven’t done much,’’ she said.
“Anything in mind?’’ I asked.
“What about the bean festival at Riverhurst?’’
Bean festival, I thought. Well, bean cuisine might be the main attraction for me. How many dishes can you make with beans?
I agreed to go.
On arrival, we noticed a trailer offering free hearing tests.
My partner urged me to take the test. “Wouldn’t hurt,” I thought.
The surprise news from the Saskatoon-based EHI Portable Hearing test operator was my hearing isn’t that bad “for your age.’’
My hearing of the tone levels of human voices is good. It falls off at higher tones.
“You don’t have selective hearing,’’ the tester said. Your hearing at those levels is good.’’
“There is no such thing as selective hearing,’’ he continued.
“There are two things in hearing. One is the ability to hear. The other is focus. If you’re focused on something, you may not hear what is said.’’
I boasted to my partner that I do not have selective hearing, but she hears what she wants to hear.
The bean festival was cool with plenty of activities from 4-H gymkhana and horse show to mutton busting, reptile show, lots of food booths, farm machinery show, a large trade show with a dozen ag-related firms in this irrigation region and a range of booths from Communities in Bloom to bean crafts and rockhound materials.
The car show, with about 80 vehicles, did a cruise to nearby Palliser Regional Park in mid-afternoon.
Four groups entertained with Tilted Kilt closing the day.
Pee wee mutton busting attracted a large crowd with dozens of riders.
The first rider mounted her sheep, then loudly declared, “I don’t wanna do this.’’ She left and another rode.
When one girl rider from a rodeo family was announced, someone said, “She should be good.’’
She was hanging onto the woolly sheep for quite a while and taking second place.
Frank Reimer, president of Border Bean International, was among ag trade show exhibitors.
“We built this bean plant (at Altona, Manitoba) and we have to keep bean acres up to keep it going,” he said.
The plant processes beans from the Prairies and North Dakota.
Reimer estimated about 12,000 acres of pinto beans are grown around Riverhurst. “That’s most of these beans in Saskatchewan. Some are grown around Outlook.‘’
Yours Truly recalled writing about the first beans grown around Riverhurst in the early 1990s when an Idaho grower promoted beans here as a crop. He even invented a device to improve harvest of low-lying beans.
Festival co-ordinator Terry Brennan estimated as many as 700 attended, one of the best crowds ever. “We don’t know how many. We don’t charge admission.’’
The festival draws residents from around the Diefenbaker Lake region.
Incidentally, the only bean cuisine was in the chilli dogs.
Ron Walter can be reached at [email protected]
