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Appalachia Through My Eyes – Giving Granny the First Beans

June 26, 2025

old woman holding basket of beans

We picked our first mess of green beans yesterday. I thought the pole beans would be ready first, but the bush beans in the big garden produced faster.

I told Granny we had a surprise for her and asked her to come out on the porch for a minute. She was tickled to death when she saw the basket of green beans we’d just picked. She said “You made my day!”

Granny loves green beans more than anyone I’ve ever met. She loves everything about growing them—the planting, tending, picking, stringing and breaking, cooking, putting up, and of course the eating part too.

It makes us happy to be able to help her with the planting, tending, and picking that she can no longer do. It’s the least we can do to pay her back for all she’s done for us.

Last night’s video: Savory Zucchini Pie Easy to Make & Perfect for Supper.

Tipper

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32 Comments

  1. How wonderful it is to share the bounty God has blessed us with. My sweet friend Anita started a ministry a few years back called summer blessings. We have a table set up at church and those of us with gardens bring to share with our senior saints who are now able to make a garden.

  2. Tipper, I love your cookbook. My Mom gave it to me as a gift. After your video of zucchini pie, I made it today. Changed it up a bit, by using what I had. I used zucchini, yellow squash, and a green tomatoe. My herbs where dried basil, oregano, & thyme. My cheese was Feta. It was delicious. Thanks for the inspiration!

  3. Tipper,
    Like everyone else today, I think it’s so sweet you think of Granny first..the first cucumber and first green beans are just a small portion of what you give her I am sure. We have to take good care of our mamas—especially when they are this age. I just got back from taking my mama for her weekly grocery trip. She still likes to get out and go with me. I am sure the day may come when I will just go for her, but for now, she likes to go and pick out her own food and sometimes, talk to folks she sees. When I was hugging her goodbye, she told me she was sorry she has to depend on me for everything. I told her I love her, and I love to take care of her. We won’t ever regret time we spend with our loved ones. Your zucchini pie from last evenings video is something I have to try. It looked cheesy and delicious. Hope everyone has a good rest of your day.

  4. I know how granny feels. My son and I had our first tomato sandwich today. It was so good! Summer is officially here!

    Word of wisdom. My grandma always told me a watched pot never boils!

  5. Many memories! My grandma always had her big garden field. Whatever came out of it got cooked, canned, frozen, and shared. Whenever we visited, we came home with glass jars of green beans, tomatoes, applesauce, jellies, and pickled yellow squash, my favorite. My older folks are all passed on now, but my home is full of my mother’s paintings. One of them she called her “guilty painting.” Grandma and my uncle were out in that field, her with her hoe and him with the ancient tractor. Meanwhile, instead of helping, my mom set up her easel on the porch and started painting the two of them at work in the garden, my grandma’s big house beyond, my uncle’s trailer in the distance, the blackberry patch and trees beside the dirt lane edging the garden, and mountains in the background. I love that painting!

  6. What a wonderful treat!!! I remember the days at my grandparents of stringing/snapping beans as they called it, shelling peas and butter beans, cutting off corn then the freezing and canning. They raised enough for themselves and our family . Oh, yes, and digging taters too!! Good times and good eats as well.

  7. Truly it is more blessed to give than to receive. To have learned and practice that will redeem the worst times. I think the BP&A “fan base” come here and stay here because of something here that is not quite seen, nor heard nor named but that we all know is there. I’ll just simply call it “heart” and leave it at that. BP&A is a big community of “good hearted” people. That expression is one I often heard growing up and it is as fine a compliment as can be given. That’s why you get so many things sent to you, Tipper, knowing also that you will appreciate each one of them.

  8. So thankful Granny got the first mess of green beans. What a blessing to still have your Mama to give beans to. Cherish every act of kindness you can do for her. I lost my Daddy last week. My Dad always used to say, “ nothing better than half- runner beans”. He would always dry some to have shucky beans (leather britches) throughout the year.

  9. I absolutely love (but probably not as much as you) that Granny gets all your first fruits, how Jesus-like of you, makes my heart smile!

  10. A beautiful picture of green beans and Granny’s hands. I am pretty sure that she enjoyed a mess of them soon after. 🙂 We grew a lot of green beans back in the day and I still enjoy them today. May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon each of you and especially Granny this day – and establish the work of all your hands. (taken from Psalm 90:17)

  11. Tipper, your video on your pie recipe was great. I usually have a great amount of zucchini to harvest as the summer goes on. You are ahead of me in your garden and I usually grate quite a bit of the zucchini and put in the freezer to use during the winter. But when they start coming in fast this time I’m going to make your recipe for that zucchini pie. It sure looks good!!

  12. We used to snap beans and shell peas under a beautiful red bud tree with my mom. Happy times. I’m so glad that Granny was happy. Such a sweet lady!

  13. Oh how sweet of you to take Granny the first pickings of green beans!! I can just see her face beaming as I know how I love those green beans too:) Hope you all can stay cool it has been some very HOT days and I think it may get a little cooler today. I sure hope so.

  14. I’m tickled to death you all picked Granny the first mess of green beans. Thank God she still has an appetite for her favorite food. It’s so hot here in KY, I couldn’t pick green beans even if they were ready.

  15. Somehow,I bet granny will hold out a “little dish” of beans for you. Her hands touched heart. They look just like my mothers hands that also had done lots of hard work and lots of loving on babies.

  16. How loving and thoughtful of you, Tipper, to remember your Mama and give her the first picking of green beans off the vine. I’m sure this raises up many memories for her. My favorite green beans are the white half runners, the ones that my daddy used to plant, which were his favorite too. I don’t get them anymore because if I don’t plant them then I don’t get them. My children don’t plant gardens and neither do most people around here anymore. God bless Granny.

  17. My grandmother would cook the best green beans with new potatoes in them and she always served them in the same tan bowl with a matching top (kinda a crock type). When us grandkids would visit her in the country she would let us help her pick, string & break them & that was fun for us city kids. I have the bowl & top-I’m 73 now so that bowl is very very old. We also thought digging potatoes was the coolest thing, but I hated picking okra-it always made me break out & sting. She would put rubbing alcohol on me. Mama Miller would also dry fruit on snow white sheets that she had made from flour sacks. I would never eat the dried peaches. I told her they smelled like toe jam. My sister, brother & I were the only grandchildren she had & she loved us so much & tried to teach us about country living. I always had milk white skin (my brother & sister had olive complexion & would tan nicely). She cherished my white skin so much as they did back in her day that she would cover me head to toe & make me wear a bonnet to protect my skin. I looked like an old woman working in the garden & would burn up. I sure wish I could go back to those days of visiting grandmother & I would ask her things about the family & try to learn as much as I could about gardening & putting up food.

  18. That was so kind of you & Matt to give Granny the first batch of your green beans. As we age in life it’s the little acts of kindness towards us that really are important to us. I know she looks forward to the first batches of beans just like Matt looks forward to that first tomato sandwich. God bless Granny!!

  19. I find it interesting when you talk about stringing green beans. I grew up in Iowa. Mom always had a big garden but I do not recall ever stringing the beans. I didn’t even know it was something one did until I watched your videos. I too like green beans. And I don’t string them.

  20. I’ve found that for the last few years I can’t plant, pick, snap, cook or can my beans without thinking of Granny….and I love that.

  21. Snapping and stringing beans is a wonderful memory for me with my grandparents. I had the blessing to have my great grandma, my grandma and grandpa all live together on a small farm in the sticks. Their home was and still is one of my favorite places on earth, even tho they are no longer with us.

  22. I am so happy for you both to be able to enjoy the bounty. I cannot even plant in the small patch in the back yard due to the MUD. I have some tomato and pepper planted in pots. Hopefully mama dear and her little one stay off the “street”. Two nights ago, about 9PM they were talking a casual walk down my
    street.

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