09/02/2026
52 Pounds of Green Beans and a Whole Lot of Memories
It started with a little wishful thinking.
Assisted Living residents Darlene and Marilyn were talking about the good old days and how nothing tastes quite like fresh green beans. A few BRC Care-Partners listened and began wondering, “Could we make that happen?”
Assistant Executive Director Katie Luce, Dining Services Director Shari Mikesell and Activities Coordinator Zelda Riffell worked together to find the beans, meet all food-safety requirements and coordinate a very special afternoon.
Yesterday, 15 Assisted Living residents gathered around two tables piled high with 52 pounds of fresh green beans from Gordon Food Service. Soon, the room was filled with laughter, conversation, the fresh scent of beans and the steady snap, snap, snap of a familiar task.
As the communal containers filled, the stories began.
Residents remembered snapping beans with their parents, grandparents and even great-grandparents. Some sat on porches or in backyards, while others gathered in the living room with everyone holding their own bowl. One resident recalled her family’s 100-acre garden and selling produce at roadside stands and from a truck. Another remembered family contests to see who could find the biggest or strangest-looking bean.
There was also the story of picking beans when a snake suddenly slithered across someone’s feet. That memory still gets a reaction!
One former BRC Care-Partner remembered working here in the 1980s and watching an earlier generation of residents gather to snap beans, much like they were doing yesterday.
The conversation wandered from beans to gardens filled with potatoes, strawberries, red beets, zucchini, cabbage, cucumbers and flowers. One resident remembered walking behind her great-uncle’s horse and tiller, gathering potatoes into a wagon and later sorting them by size. Another recalled being paid one penny for every rock she picked from a field.
And then there was the woman who carefully planted 200 strawberry plants, only to have a well-meaning helper accidentally till them all under at the end of the season. Some gardening stories become funnier with time. Probably not all 200 plants’ worth of time, though.
Everyone agreed that ham or bacon is the best thing to cook with fresh green beans, although their mothers usually used whatever was available and somehow made them taste wonderful every time.
At one point, a resident looked around the table and simply said, “This is a lovely time.”
Another joked that after snapping so many beans, she might try out for a baseball team.
And the story is not over yet! On Thursday, our Dining Services team will cook the freshly snapped beans and serve them to BRC residents. After all that work and anticipation, we have a feeling they are going to taste especially good.
Sometimes a meaningful day begins when two people say, “Do you remember?” and someone takes the time to listen. What started with a craving for fresh green beans became an afternoon of shared work, laughter and memories passed from one generation to another.
