FAMILY BEANS.

The other day we went over to our neighbor's house on an exciting invitation: they wanted to give us some of their "Holder Bean Seed"––"Holder" being their last name.These are beans they've been saving for "fifty years or more", but have been in the family (and in this area) for much longer than that. In fact, no one's sure how old the seed actually is––"I got them from my mother-in-law" she assured us. We traded her some Cherokee Turkey Eye butter beans from the 1700’s and she threw in some "Whippoorwill Peas" of equally unknown origin, thus completing one of my favorite transactions of all time: the seed swap.Saving seed is an important tradition in which Hannah and I love to take part. We hope to get to a point when a lot of what we grow and give is an heirloom, like the Holder Bean––a local seed with a local story. We like when our food is not only healthy, but full of tradition.The next morning, we were headed to market and Eric said something rather poignant. Even though he's an outsider––meaning that he moved to Bugtussle from elsewhere––he's starting to feel like there are pieces of this area's history that one day only he will possess. We all hear different stories from different neighbors and thus collect different bits and pieces about the history of this area. Sometimes it's a story about the old barn or pond on your property, or sometimes it's a bean. Either way, we're always honored when we newcomers to the area are given a piece of Bugtussle history to keep alive, especially when it's edible.- Jesse.