Saturday, July 09, 2011

Snip, Snip, Snip

We arrived home from our wonderful afternoon of playing in the lake quarry at Hidden Paradise to find my mom in front of this pile:

Mom never does anything small
She got them from a local farmer who had called that afternoon telling her they were picking the bean field and to come and get them.  She went, thinking she would have to pick them like last year, but was delightfully surprised and forever grateful upon arrival when the farmer just gave her the beans off the truck.

So after changing out of my swimsuit and eating a quick supper of Papa John's, I sat down and began helping.  Lapful after lapful of beans we sniped, and sniped, and sniped, and sniped.  It helped to be sitting in front of the tv and watching HGTV, which we don't get at our home.  We snipped enough for mom to fill two canners full, and to have two canners full the next morning.


After breakfast the next morning, I continued to put lapfuls of green beans onto my lap, putting the snipped ends in one bowl, and the snapped beans into another.  Mom helped snip in between watching the canner, making sure the pressure didn't get to high.  The kids took turns snipping and playing, snipping, and playing, snipping and playing.

Meanwhile my long marathon snipping routine finally ended mid-afternoon.  Mom's canning marathon, however continued.  Finally after supper, the work was completed.  From that big pile to 71 quarts of green beans, ready to be placed on the shelf and enjoyed in the coming year!

Yes,  I'm taking some home with me!

3 comments:

Schlef Family said...

WOW!! That's amazing!

organistsandra said...

71! That was a mountain of green beans. What an accomplishment! To me, a generous store of home canned goods in the basement makes an easy choice for unexpected company or the next potluck that always seems to be during a busy week. Not to mention daily meals.

Katy said...

I'm so jealous