Beans

Harvesting bean always reminds me of my mother.  She grew up during The Depression and their family lost one farm, moved to another and had two more children after she was born in 1928.  They had dairy cows, chickens, crops and a garden but there was still the need for coats and shoes that the farm did not provide.  Once the kids were old enough to work they pitched in.  This did not happen when they were 16 or 18 but in their single digit years.  The went to school and learned their lessons, but summer provided the opportunity to "farm out" the kids to others who needed the hands and paid for the labor.  My mother and her younger brother were particularly good at picking beans.  The worked quickly and did a thorough job of picking the plants clean so they were in demand by the neighboring farmer when he was in need.  Their labor in the beans fields meant there was enough money to get everyone a new winter coat.
The amount of beans I pick out of my 8' row of pole beans and similar row of bush beans is nothing in comparison to what Mom and Uncle Paul did. What they did was not for pocket change or last night's dinner.  Her story does come to mind each time I pick my beans in my own garden as a lesson in counting my blessings.  We are in our own recession now but I do not have to send my daughter out to work so she has a winter jacket.  She is saving up to maybe get a car someday and have some spending cash as she does not get an allowance from us for that.  She will also have some cash for her yearbook, dances, and sports extras that we don't cover.  She will not have to contribute that to the family income to make sure we all stay warm this winter.
I hear people complain about taxes, the cost of living and all the other things that are making them "tighten their belt".  I still see the same people take vacation, buy new cars, send the kids to camp, and finish decorating the house.  If this is what we consider rough times we don't know beans!

(Photos are of purple violetto pole beans raw and then cooked. They lose much of the purple coloring with the process, my kids always thought of them as magic beans when they did this>)