Annual Bean Hole Supper by Bob Jørgensen
Mark the weekend of July 18th 19th and 20th on your calendar, because Harpswell’s Boy Scout Troop 642, together with the local Cub Scouts and Girl Scouts are planning an enormous celebration at Mitchell Field, and the public is invited. The event was approved by the Town Selectmen on June, 19.
The Scouts and their families will be pitching tents and camping out at the site in an overnight “Family Camporee,” weather permitting, one that will be studded with community events and activities. Foremost among these activities will be an opening ceremony, presentation of scouting awards including merit badges for small boat handling, weather, oceanography and an Eagle Court of Honor, all starting at 7 PM Friday night, plus a huge, old-fashioned beanhole supper on Saturday, the 19th from 5-7 PM. The cost of the dinner will be just $10 per person, $5 for kids under 12 for all you can eat. In addition to three kinds of beans, plus steamed clams for those who don’t like beans, there will be biscuits, hot dogs, potato salad, coleslaw, rolls, pickles, soft drinks, coffee, cake and other desserts.
The featured beans are not ordinary baked beans, as the containers of kidney, navy and yellow eye beans will each be parboiled and then mixed with molasses, brown sugar, pork, onions, dry mustard, black pepper and salt and then cooked the old-fashioned way for maximum flavor – by slowly simmering them for 24 hours atop the coals of a hardwood fire in a traditional 4 by 6 by 3 foot stone and brick lined pit in bean pots that are covered with fitted steel barrels and heavy steel plates, then 6 inches of dirt. Quart and pint containers of these special beans will be on sale afterwards for take-home treats!
Following the beanhole supper, there will be the largest bonfire ever held at Mitchell Field and the troop will raffle off prizes including lobsters, clams, a genuine Red Sox team jersey (Jason Veritek), a Red Sox flag and hat, according to Scoutmaster Dale McGlauflin.
Many other activities will be available during the two-day celebration, including sailboat rides in the Troop’s beautiful new 19 foot Cape Dory Typhoon sloop that was donated to the scouts by C.V. Noyes, plus swimming, fishing, kickball, volleyball, softball, horseshoes a scavenger hunt and the launching of a number of model rockets. Attendees are encouraged to bring their bicycles, if they wish, in order to get around the vast expanse of Mitchell Field more easily. Visitors will find the site well-groomed as the Scouts will have mowed the overgrown lawns the week before.
In the event of rain, the beanhole supper will be still held Saturday night at 5 PM at the Elijah Kellogg Church.
Friends, relatives and neighbors are encouraged to think of this gala outing as a local mini-vacation in our own public “back yard” that will save on gas- unless, of course, one considers that which will be generated by the beans.