Tis The Season!!!!

The time has finally arrived. Tis the season for "Guymon Grown Green Beans" to go into production again. Time to begin the backbreaking work of bending over and picking the green beans, sitting at the counter nipping off the ends and cutting them into bite sized pieces. Then comes carting all those empty jars from the shelves downstairs upstairs and placing them in the dishwasher for sterilizing. Next the beans are washed and rewashed, placed in a big pot and covered with water and boiled for 5 minutes. They are then packed into the hot jars fresh from the dishwasher. Finally they are placed inside the pressure cooker where the pressure is raised to 12 pounds and then watched carefully for 20 minutes. Then, after three days of standing, the jars are carted back downstairs again and loaded onto the storage room shelf. Lots of work!! Lots of bending and lifting and standing! Lots of running up and down stairs. You begin to wonder if it is all worth it when you can go to the local grocery store and purchase a can of beans for less than $1 (I think!! It has been a long, long time since I bought canned beans!) But within a few weeks, when the memory of aching backs, sore feet and legs from standing and hot, tiring evenings are forgotten, the sight of all those beans sitting comfortably on the shelf in the storage room is a beautiful sight to behold. Even better is opening a jar for dinner and having all the family, even the littlest of darling grandchildren, enjoy eating them! That is when "Guymon Grown Green Beans" become a true joy and the hard work is all worth it.