Let's Soak Some Beans

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Hey folks! Hard times may stay awhile.
Have you soaked some beans lately? Have you cooked for leftovers lately?

Years ago, old Johnny F. visited our church. He wasn't a regular church goer, but we were glad he came.

He lived on East Main and knew where our place of business was. Toward the end of the month, money often got tight. He'd come by and kindly ask for help. Sometimes it was for kerosine and other times he needed to fill his belly. We did not mind helping. Been there myself.   See "A Time And Place, The Making of an Immigrant"

I remember the last time, before Johnny died, I brought some sacks of vittles to his house. It was a drafty old house. A pretty young girl, late teens, was also there playing with her young child. His great-grandbaby he said. I pulled from the bags can goods, bread and other staples. Among them was a large bag of dried pinto beans.

"What's that?" the girl said.

That question has never left me. After seeing POVERTY in several third-world countries, it shocked me to realize that a most inexpensive and nutritious staple was not a means to make it to the next check. A bowl of beans or rice, once a day, is what most of the world survives on.

Now you can elevate a bowl of beans, slow cooked with a hunk of country ham, to a status of supreme. Add a handful of chopped raw onions, a hunk of buttered cornbread in one hand an a soupspoon in the other, and you're ready to go to town. Yum. Yum. Wash it all down with a tall glass of buttermilk, it doesn't get any better.

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