I picked the first of our green bean harvest today. I'm so excited about this. We haven't had a garden at all in several years, and we've never planted green beans.
It brings back so many memories for me. It's probably the reason I like them, more than the actual beans themselves. They're pintos, which I've never seen at a farmer's market or the produce department, but they have always been my favorite green beans.
My grandparents had a huge garden on their farm when I was a kid (and forever before that as well) and all the kids and grandkids would come in together when it was time to harvest corn or green beans and work together to get the job done and everything stored. I have so many good memories of those days. I know we (the grandkids) did lots of complaining about the work of it, and I'm sure we were often more of a hindrance than a help to our parents, but I'm glad we all did it together - I'm glad for the memories - I'm glad for the things it taught me.
One of my strongest memories of my grandmother is her sitting at the dining room table with her chair turned sideways, feet propped up, looking out the window right next to her, as she snapped beans. She spent hours and hours there in her lifetime. I so wish I had a picture of her doing that.
She was one of the hardest working, most patient homemakers I've ever seen. She spent her whole life caring for her family, her kids, her grandkids, friends, their farm hands. She cooked more food in her lifetime than most of us would cook in a multitude of lifetimes. She farmed, harvested, cleaned, canned, froze, washed, cooked, and cleaned again - and I do not have one memory of her complaining. She had to have at some point - because she was human - but she certainly was not characterized by it.
I've really got nothing profound to say, except I just wanted to share that with y'all. Picking that little dab of the first of our crop brought back so many memories - a little bit of that just needed to be shared. :)
If you're in our LifeGroup, you may just get to eat some green beans in the next few weeks!
What are some of your favorite childhood memories?
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