Walking Beans

Unless you grew up in Iowa or somewhere in the Midwest, you have no idea what I mean when I say we walked beans. Some where between the invention of the combine and genetic engineering Iowa farmers decide they needed to make sure that their bean fields were free of weeds so they invented bean walking.

For those of you who didn't grow up on a farm in Iowa, walking beans consists of each person taking responsibility for 6 to 8 rows of beans and using a hoe to cut out any weeds you saw with out taking out too many bean plants. This is usually done in the mornings to avoid the heat of the day or to be available for baling hay after the dew had burned off. (See my last post for how much fun that is.)

The fields we walked were anywhere from 5 to 80 acres with rows ranging from 200 yards to over half a mile in length. So we certainly got our exercise. Fortunately most of the fields we walked were owned by my Grandpa so we got paid pretty well for walking beans. Plus, we always had the chance to eat Grandma's cooking and raid the cookie jar.

Now I have heard multiple explanations for why we walked beans. They range from the weeds clog the combine to farmers wanted to make sure their fields looked better than their neighbors. Now the amazing thing is I have found out that walking beans is a very regional ritual. Which really makes me wonder was it really necessary at all. On recent trips home I have seen fields with plenty of weeds visible from the road. Yet kids don't walk beans any more.

There are various reason why they don't which anyone who isn't a farmer really won't care about. Which leads me to believe that I spend a lot of time walking up and down rows of beans carrying a hoe for no reason other than to make the field look pretty. I always wondered why when we were behind we only walked what you could see from the road.

But maybe there were other reasons. It was a good way to keep kids occupied, teach them the value of doing a job right and what full days work was. Possibly it was a way to motivate us to go to college so we wouldn't be walking beans after high school. Maybe it was a way for my Grandpa to spend time with his Grand kids, passing on stories and even sharing a little wealth, not all of it being monetary.

Walking beans may have been a superficial thing to do but sometimes things we do show their value in their own way and in their own time.