Maine has many
country fairs but one of the most popular is the Maine Organic
Gardener and Farmer's Common Ground Fair, currently held in
Unity, Maine in September. One area of the fair is devoted to
folk arts. The Maine Folklife Center sets up an exhibit about
Maine Folklife including lumbering traditions, coastal life,
Maine's folk music traditions, rural entertainment and how to
conduct oral histories. In 1999 the center requested and
received permission from the fair organizers to prepare bean
hole beans at the fair. Permission was granted with the
understanding that all ingredients would be organic. We
purchased yellow-eye beans from the University of Maine Roger
experimental farm's organic gardens, salt pork from an organic
grower in Maine, and organically prepared molasses and maple
syrup from the Natural Living Center in Brewer, Maine. We
approached the living history center, Leonard's Mills in
Bradley, Maine (who make bean hole beans as part of their
Living History Days celebration) to borrow two bean pots.
These are actually large pot-bellied cast-iron kettles with
steel lids and handles. They also threw in a recipe or two. We
borrowed a wood hook from the Page Farm and Home Museum at the
University of Maine to lift the bean pots out of the ground.
We hired Stuart Mailman, of Brewer, Maine, an experienced bean
hole bean maker to oversee the making of the beans. He brought
several volunteers with him to prepare the hole, build the
fire and bake the beans, and remove the beans and serve them
to fair goers.
We set up the tent and began
digging the bean hole on Thursday, planning to bake beans on
Friday to serve Saturday, baking again on Saturday to serve on
Sunday. The undertaking is quite labor-intensive the first
time, which is why many Mainers dig their bean holes and use
the same hole over and over for decades. We dug a pit about
three feet wide by four feet long and three feet deep. We
brought flat rocks from a farm and about 1/2 cord of hardwood
(maple, oak) for the fire. The bean hole was lined with rocks,
bottom and sides. On Friday afternoon we built a fire and let
it burn for about four hours. This resulted in about a foot of
good coals. The beans were soaked and parboiled ahead of time
and carried to the fair site in buckets. We placed the beans,
salt pork, water and seasonings in the pot, covered it and
laid it in the bottom of the bean hole and covered it first
with hot coals and then with dirt until no steam or smoke
could be seen rising from the hole. The beans were left in the
hole overnight. We had a fair number of people gathering
around to watch the operation, including little boys who
wanted to throw things into the fire. We placed a
sandwich-board sign near the hole so people could see what we
were doing.
The men who were engaged in
making the beans brought heavy gloves and a long metal pole to
lift the beans out of the hole with. They also brought several
shovels and rakes and a wisk broom to clean the dirt off the
top of the pot before opening the pot to reveal the baked
beans. There were a number of spectators who commented on the
process and on their own experience with making bean hole
beans. One man, who volunteers with the Patten lumberman's
Museum in Patten, Maine, told of their lumberman's days when
they make 18 pots of bean hole beans and use 200 pounds of
flour to make biscuits. Our operation was considerably
smaller. We cooked a total of 22 pounds of beans (in two
batches). These were served in small paper cups. We served
hundreds of people on Saturday and Sunday and everyone enjoyed
the experience. Spectators not only commented on the process
and on how good the beans were, but some of them got involved.
Especially one photographer who was visiting the fair to get
some photos for publication. He stopped at the bean hole and
began serving beans to other spectators, giving a running
commentary on how delicious they were. Another fairgoer, a
restaurant-owner from Massachusetts, was so enthralled he
declared the beans “The best food at the fair!” Both pots of
beans were finished in an hour as a stream of visitors, drawn
by the lovely baked-bean aroma that wafted across the
fairgrounds, lined up for a taste.
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