Hey! Chris here with my own solo episode. Look, we’ve all been through a lot in the past few weeks, and this podcast has been accordingly a bit intense. Not today! This one is about beans.I sat down with my old friend Jen Burt, who some of you may know as the person behind the Worcester Mammoth Horticultural Bean Fair. The Worcester Mammoth is a bean that was sold and grown widely throughout the area from roughly the late 1890s until the 1950s, when it largely seems to have disappeared. Fast-forward to COVID times, when Jen rediscovered the bean in an old seed catalog and decided to hunt it down and bring it back.

We talk about that process, the cultural importance of local heirloom foods and the cultural responsibility of reviving them appropriately, being “pro or anti-GMO” as a sort of reductive concept, other favorite beans, agricultural fairs and how cool they are, and a few other things, but really…it’s just about beans at the end of the day. Don’t overthink it. We didn’t.

THE BEAN HAS AN EMAIL: If you would like to get the bean and/or to know more about the bean, hit up [email protected]

Quick pause from the money man to ask you humbly that you help this little outlet grow into a mammoth outlet! Paid subscriptions are best, but dropping a few bucks in the tip jar or ordering something from the merch store is also great. Thank you! —Bill

We also talked about some historical events that happened at the Worcester Agricultural Fairgrounds, but we didn’t talk about the time Worcester people chased a massive Klan rally out of the city by…uh…any means necessary? No idea why things like this are kicking around in my head. Roll that beautiful bean coverage!

Some relevant links: Seed Savers ExchangeHappiness Pony

Jacob’s Cattle BeanThe Worcester Agricultural Fairground

∿This podcast is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Overcast, Pocket Casts others via this RSS link.

∿Outro music: “Celebrate” by Anderson .Paak

∿Intro music by Bill Shaner

Get full access to Worcester Sucks and I Love It at www.worcestersucks.email/subscribe