Dad's Bean Hole Beans

This recipe presented two distinct challenges. Firstly, I live in a parsonage and I'm not likely to receive permission to dig up the lawn just to try my hand at cooking bean hole beans. Secondly, we are now solidly in winter, and even if I had opportunity to dig a hole, it's not the right time of year.

So I allowed as how baking the beans in the oven would have to do for now, and we'll see what summer brings. Who knows, maybe the church will want to offer a bean hole bean "suppah" as a fundraiser.

The picture shows off pea beans, and yet the recipe calls for yellow-eye beans. I must say, were I pressed to pick a favorite bean recipe, I did so love the Baked Yellow-Eye Beans (see blog). But when it came time to try this recipe, there were no yellow-eye beans in the pantry. So I used pea beans. I do like pea beans, but I have to wonder if these beans were getting a little old. They seemed to take longer to cook. I checked the difference between the Yellow-Eye Bean recipe and the Bean Hole recipe, and this one lacks margarine, brown sugar, and onion. This is a fine recipe, tho, and I did enjoy it. We'll see if it comes out as well, if I try my hand at getting coals just right in a hole, to nestle a pot of beans all day long. Hats off to Jayne Farrin's dad, who knew how to get those coals the right temp before baking the beans.

This recipe completes the Bean chapter in the Maine Bicentennial Community Cookbook. There could not be a more popular beloved food in Maine, I think, than beans.