Bountiful Rejoicing: Beating the Bean Beetles

Another Way for week of October 13, 2023

Bountiful Rejoicing: Beating the Bean Beetles

As autumn gets serious and the rabbits and squirrels collect their bounty for winter, I am also finishing my canning/freezing for the season. Hooray! We have tomatoes, peaches, strawberries, potatoes, green beans, and corn which should carry us through the winter until next summer.

While there is much that I lament about our nation, our world, the fighting and wars, and many problems and grieving that we all experience, there is much to help us rejoice.

I’m truly overjoyed to share good news about our years-long struggle with bean beetles destroying so much of our pole bean crop. (If you want the history of this struggle and use a computer, click the “tinyurl” link at the end of this column.)

This year we got fresh dirt and put it in our garden. I truly think that was the secret that helped curtail the destructive bugs. My brother-in-law was clearing space for a large shed, and he needed someone to haul off some of his rich, beautiful soil. My dear husband took it upon himself to do it by hand, shovel by shovel into a pickup full of five-gallon buckets. We keep a lot of those buckets to store kindling that falls off the logs we cut up for firewood.

I believe we hauled something like 7-8 or so truckloads of dirt in buckets, and then hired a guy to haul a final load! Yes, back breaking work, but another form of exercise if you look at that way. My husband is in his late 60s and has had two knee replacement surgeries, so he’s not exactly a spring chicken but still has strong muscles.

But here’s the result: we had very few Mexican bean beetles this year! To that I say halleluiah! We also planted a few stinky marigolds nearby, which may have helped (although I’ve tried that before). In a column I wrote in 2017, I estimated that we had killed 10,000-20,000 beetles, (by hand, no pesticides) over 10 years on our land; this year I estimate we had no more than 150 or so beetles. They were much more manageable. I kept holding my breath for a break out of more beetles but we kept them at bay. We plant the beans late and didn’t harvest any until mid- September. They are still producing, here in mid-October, and despite drought conditions for awhile. We will likely have fresh green beans until frost.

Last year, I struggled to can 28 or so quarts which came close to running out by early summer. This year, we should have enough green beans to last us until production starts next summer.

Enough about beans! The point of this column is what gets you stirred up in thankfulness for the bounty you have experienced?

Okay, we all go through rough times, some devasting times, and who knows what lies ahead for any of us. But the important thing is to savor the gifts we have been given by nature, from God, from our brothers and sisters all around the world who raise food that we can enjoy and share.

Unfortunately, too too many people around the world are verifiably starving. This was a burden my father (how many times have I preached it here?) carried with him throughout his adult years. We now talk about families with “food insecurity.” I’m glad so many of our schools have seen to it that children at least, are receiving two (and often free) healthy meals a day, even if the food at home might be as scarce as only chips, bread, and peanut butter.  

My father was an avid supporter of the organization we now call Heifer International, which came to life after the end of World War 2, which helped send cows, goats, and sheep to families around the world, who in turn first raised replacement animals so they could grow cows or goats or sheep—a sure answer to food insecurity.

However you share, we all benefit by reaching out to those in need—whether across the globe, at a local school, or right next door.

Here’s the link to my column showing damage bean beetles do: https://tinyurl.com/yw8yhmud

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What bounty are you enjoying? It can be anything!

Or share your laments. Life can be hard.

Comment here or send to me at Another Way, P.O. Box 363, Singers Glen, VA 22834, or email anotherwaymedia@yahoo.com.

Another Way is a column by Melodie Davis, in syndication since 1987. She is the author of ten books, most recently Memoir of an Unimagined Career. Another Way columns are posted at FindingHarmonyBlog.com a week after newspaper publication.