Maine Folklife Center cited in Ellsworth American article on bean hole bean tradition
Information from the Maine Folklife Center at the University of Maine was included in an Ellsworth American article about members of Halcyon Grange No. 345 in Blue Hill taking on the New England tradition of making bean hole beans. Native Americans first made the beans by “baking beans with bear grease in maple syrup in clay pots covered with deerskins and buried in coals in the ground,” according to the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association. Lumbermen who worked in the state’s north woods adapted the process by putting the beans in cast iron pots and burying those in the ground surrounded by coals, according to the Maine Folklife Center. The article also included a list of bean-related expressions and their meanings compiled by the center.