Written by Bob Jørgensen | 02 July 2009

Mark Saturday, July 18, on your calendar! It's the evening when the Harpswell scouts will be offering their traditional bean-hole supper from 5-7 PM at Mitchell Field, down by the waterfront. The public is invited to attend.
This year the overall event will be under the direction of Eric Field. In charge of preparing the beans is Dale McLaughlin. "I've got 59 years of tradition and the secret sauce recipe to back me up," he quipped. McLaughlin and his crew will be observing the traditional procedure for cooking beans in a bean-hole, a technique that involves digging a four foot deep by four foot square hole in the ground and filling it with hardwood, which is then lit and the roaring fire allowed to burn for hours until there is nothing left but extremely hot, glowing coals. After that, several special, heavy stainless kettles full of a mixture of pork, secret sauce and parboiled beans are lowered into the hole atop the coals, covered with a steel plate and subsequently buried. The beans are left undisturbed to simmer in the classified mixture for a unique flavor that cannot be achieved any other way. "There are many ways to cook beans," noted Fields, "And while this one is the most hard work and most time-consuming, the results are certainly well worth it."
Scottish Handyman, Ian Marshall, a member of the cooking crew commented, "I never did anything like this before I moved to Harpswell, and now I'm an expert on kidney beans, yellow eyes and pea beans."
Three types of beans will be served with hot dogs, rolls, potato salad, coleslaw, pickles, with homemade brownies, cookies and cakes, all baked by the moms of the scouts for dessert. Clam dinners will also be available for those who prefer seafood.
The committee, members of the Harpswell Scouting Assistance Association, who will assist manning the cooking fires, preparing the other food items, setting up tables serving and cleanup include: Alan Nordwall, Ian Marshall, Richard Graves, Prescott, McCurdy, Donnette Goodenow, Loretta Ward and Robert Anderson.
Bean-hole dinners are $10 for adults and $5 for children with clam dinners at $15. Proceeds of this fundraising event will be used to operate the Scout Hall on Rt. 123, opposite the Harpswell Anchor, including lights, heat, maintenance and taxes. The Hall serves as a meeting place and center of scouting events and activities, such as workshops, and other projects for more than 60 local youngsters, who are members of Harpswell's Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Cub Scouts, Brownies and Tiger Cubs.