Books We Love Insider Blog: growing beans

Monday, October 31, 2022

Counting the Beans by Priscilla Brown

Counting the Beans

by Priscilla Brown

https://wwwww.books2read.com/Class-Act

Gina's new boss is holding a secret she has a right to know.

Will he spill the beans?

In the vegetable aisle at my local supermarket, I came across the treasurer of a local organisation to which I belong. In this capacity as bean counter in chief, she has to know how many beans make five. And counting was exactly what she was doing, making hard work of putting runner beans one by one into her brown paper bag. Maybe she wanted to be sure each family member would receive a precise number. This bean counter completed her arithmetic, leaving the space for me to grab three handfuls which I knew from experience was the perfect amount for my kitchen.

Any kind of grocery shopping is for me a fairly mindless occupation, and while continuing around the aisles I remembered how runner beans had figured in my childhood. My father grew them in what was known as the 'kitchen garden'. My mother used to send me as a young child to pick them, adding Mind you count them. Perhaps she really needed to know the exact number, or else she was encouraging me to use my number skills. In primary school, we grew beans in jar as a science experiment. I don't remember, and probably never understood, why. As homework, I had to grow one in a jar and write up its progress. My mother was not impressed when I used one of her jars she reserved for jam making. And probably my teacher was not impressed when my bean failed to do anything except shrivel up. Bottom of the class - again!