Drought puts pause on 'bean hole beans' tradition at First United Methodist Church

GILFORD — The drought has caused trouble for farmers, led to apples falling quicker than normal, and even prompted trees to shed their foliage early. At First United Methodist Church, it also put a pause on a 50-year tradition.

The annual Autumn Supper will go on as planned Saturday, Oct. 18, but one thing will be a bit different: there will be no “bean hole beans.” Due to Gov. Kelly Ayotte’s statewide proclamation against any sort of outside burning, the church could not obtain the proper permit needed to cook the beans in the ground. With a little creativity and resilience, the church will still have beans with dinner, but this time, cooked in the oven and in slow cookers.

“It is something that everyone really looks forward to, so it is sad that we won’t be able to do it,” said Sharon Waldon, chair of the annual Autumn Supper at the church. “It’s been a bit of a damper.”

Waldon said they attempted to obtain permits about 10 days ago, and spent the days since hoping for plenty of rain so they could apply again. Some rain came, but not nearly enough for the burn ban to be lifted, leaving them in a predicament.

“All our publicity has said that we would have bean hole beans, but we will announce at the meal that we couldn’t cook them in the pits,” Waldon said. “There was no way. We have been doing this for years, and it is a big interest to people, so it is too bad.”

Waldon said that to make the beans, their “bean expert” Jeff Keyser lines holes dug at the back of the property with rocks. A fire is lit in each of the holes, and once it burns down to coals, large caldrons of beans are placed into the holes and covered with metal plates. The cooking normally starts on Friday afternoon and goes right up until the meal on Saturday.

Keyser, who is a sheep herder at Ramblin Vewe Farm, has been in charge of the beans for nearly 20 years. He is the one who gets the big kettles ready, opens up the holes, and moves the caldrons with a tractor. Before the tractor was involved, there would be seven or eight people carrying the hot cauldrons together on a large metal stick. Now, the pots have chains on them he can lift, one by one, to bring them to and from the hole.

The holes are all in the ground and don’t need to be dug again each year, she said. Instead, there are metal plates placed over them and covered with dirt. While it is difficult to say exactly how long the beans have been cooked in this fashion for the supper, Waldon knows it's been done for as long as the supper has been in town.

“It’s definitely before my time, but I know it has been going for as long as I know of,” she said.

While they won’t be able to carry out this process this time around, she said the expected 150 patrons will still be able to have the delicious recipe consisting of both kidney and great northern beans, complete with a sauce stirred in while they are cooking.

Waldon ensured diners the all-you-can-eat meal consisting of corned beef and cabbage, potatoes, carrots, and pie is still on, noting the supper with the "bean hole beans" has been going since at least 1969, when the church moved from Laconia to Gilford. It has potentially been in this format for more than a century, as Waldon recently found an old advertisement for it from 1907.

The supper is served family style. Waldon said dishes of food are put down on the table and passed around to serve everyone. People from all over the Lakes Region come each year, and while people buy tickets ahead of time, they also have walk-ins who see their sign out front and decide to check it out.

This isn’t the first time the tradition has been put on hold, however. Waldon said several years back there was so much rainfall the holes flooded. This shows the unpredictability of weather, and its repercussions, even on a small scale.

“We did have that other glitch one year when we had to throw out the beans after the holes flooded, and since then we put drainage in that has helped,” Waldon said. “This year, that didn’t matter. I guess Mother Nature does its thing.”

Seatings for the dinner are at 5 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 18. For more information, call 603-524-3289.