Success for Harvest Feastival in new location

This year’s annual Harvest Feastival, sponsored by the Moorcroft Area Chamber of Commerce, was visited by over 80 guests at the new venue in the MTC and hosted more than 16 soups with accruements.

A couple of glitches came up with electrical access and space, according to chamber member and co-organizer Elaine Buckmiller, but were overcome to some extent as guests began to arrive from Moorcroft, Pine Haven and even Gillette.

A few, like local resident Laura Long, attended for the first time; she was impressed with the delicious soups and company. She described her soup tasting strategy: “I had to look at all of them and then went back around again.” She started with a bowl of pork tortilla and tried samples of the others to offer a qualified vote.

Others, like Melodie Jones and couple Arney and Penny Altaffer, have been coming to this event for more than a decade. These connoisseurs of soup usually have a preference and the overwhelming favorite of many seemed to be the ham and bean.

Altaffer, who sticks with his potage of choice said, “Why would you try anything else?” With that said, though, this year’s strong contender was the first-time shrimp and corn chowder and the tomato bisque.

Alyson White and Cynthia Clonch tied for People’s Choice in the soups; Susan Millard won the fall decorated theme cake contest; Avery Burr guessed how many candies were in the jar; and Justin Clark won the $500 cash prize, donating $100 back to the chamber for the Christmas Basket Project, to which all proceeds from this event go.

The Moorcroft Senior Center up the hall, hosted a bake sale with a myriad of sweet treats to help add much needed funds to their building coffers.