Shuck Beans

58 RECIPE AND MEMOIR Shuck Beans Sidney Saylor Farr SINCE PIONEER DAYS, ONE TRADITIONAL METHOD of preserving food in Appalachia has been by air and sun drying. Green beans, long a staple of the mountain diet, are among the most popular foods to dry. In some localities, dried green beans are called leather britches; in others they are called shuck beans and shucky beans. The Cherokee had been cultivating beans long before the arrival of European settlers in the early 1700s. Like maize, beans were nutritious and fairly easy to grow, particularly in the rich valley bottomlands in the mountains. In pioneer days drying beans was a necessity for survival. A bean stringing was a popular social event in the first part of the twentieth century, as were apple peelings, corn shuckings, and quilting bees. This was a way for neighbors to socialize while at the same time getting needed work done. Word would go out to neighbors that a bean stringing would take place at a certain home on a certain date; everyone was welcome to come. Neighbors and acquaintances came from near and far. They might bring a guitar, fiddle, or banjo to provide music for the bean stringing. The music provided entertainment for youngsters who would frolic and play games while the music rang out. Many hands made short work of two or three bushels of green beans ready for drying. People liked the dried shuckbeans so much that even today there are mountain families who raise bean crops and dry them for winter eating instead ofpreserving themby the more commonmethods ofcanning and pickling. They say they crave the intense flavor of the dried shuck bean. Appalachian families who migrate "up north" or elsewhere often carry fond memories of dried beans and dried apples with them, and it is not unusual for boxes of dried beans or apples to be shipped to Arizona, Detroit, Indianapolis, or Cleveland where they are eagerly received by people who are homesick for old-time cooking and traditions. In the Big Sandy region of Southeastern Kentucky, some families waited for the first snow to cook the first mess of shuck beans. This was an annual ritual for many generations. The favoritebeans for drying were the white half-runner, the striped cornfield bean, and the Kentucky Wonder. 59 There are two methods for drying beans. When the beans mature but the green pod is still edible, they are picked from the vines, each end broken off and the strings removed. A big darning needle is threaded with No. 40 thread; the needle is carefully inserted between the two middle beans in the pod. It is sort of like stringing popcorn for Christmas trees. When the strung beans are three or four feet long, the thread is knotted, and the string of beans is hung on porch rafters, or on walls behind the wood-burning stove in the kitchen. The beans slowly turn straw-colored and shrivel up. After the beans are dry, they are put into cloth sacks or glass jars for storage. Alater method is to put the dry beans in the deep freezer to keep out bugs and insects. The second way to prepare beans for drying is to break off the ends and strings from both sides; then each pod is broken into bite-size pieces, usually between each bean in the pod. The broken pieces are spread out on white cloths and put in a sunny place to dry. Many women break their beans before drying because, they say, it is easier to prepare the dried beans for cooking. One advantage of breaking the beans instead of stringing them is that it is often difficult to pull out the threads after the strings of beans have dried. Today, not many mountain families dry green beans in this old fashioned way. They are more likely to dehydrate them or to barter with local florists for room in a greenhouse where they can spread out their apples and beans to dry. In modern times many versions of some of the old recipes exist, but some cooks still prefer the old time recipes handed down through generations of mountain people. The best...