Beans developed

Having finished with reference 1, the mind lighted upon bean feast, a phrase one hears occasionally. Perhaps in connection with some corporate bash or some sales flavoured bash.

I consulted both Gemini and OED on the matter, this last at reference 2 and giving the phrase a modest couple of column inches, nearly illegible and inconsiderately spread across two pages.

Between them, they turned up various items, some more relevant to the matter in hand than others.

There seems to be agreement that a bean feast was a feast offered by a farmer or landowner, perhaps annually, to the men and women who actually did the work. And it seems quite likely that this involved a dish of broad beans and bacon, two staples of country diet, certainly in the 19th century, in England. And with bacon not being so far from the winter salami of reference 1.

But there is also talk of the possibility of the bean goose having been the main dish at such a feast. The bean goose, snapped above from Wikipedia, is a goose from northern parts which winters in southern parts. A goose which I would probably have confused with the gray lag goose, not focussing on the broad bean like lump on the top of the bill of the former, possibly the origin of the name. Another possibility being its habit of feeding on the stubble of bean fields, which would have been available when they arrived in this country.

Then there is talk of the horse bean, a variety of broad bean once fed to horses and other animals. Which Bing mixes up thoroughly with a common complaint afflicting an intimate part of male horses - including geldings - a complaint sometimes going by the name of beans.

Gemini, on the other hand, when prompted about this aspect of things, gets going on horse problems with the plantar ligament, problems which Bing says are called 'curb' not 'bean'. It is not clear whether Gemini is just making it up, or whether we have boundary problems arising from censorship, as I presume it has been taught to keep clear of matters intimate.

From where I associate to my own transient problems with one of my plantar ligaments, sufficiently problematic that I went to see a doctor about it; a doctor who knew all about exactly where to poke. The upshot was that I decided to put up with the discomfort which, in the event, faded away after a week or so and has not, thankfully, come back.

Whether or not Gemini is making stuff up, he is rather good at conversation and conversational waffle. He would do very well at the nineteenth hole or the saloon bar of TB.

The bad news is that sorting out bean feast is almost as bad as sorting out bugle. Is delving in the ancient written record the answer? Trying to get oral testimony from the depths of the country? Searching for the traces of history in the record on the Internet, rather in the way that Reich digs out history from genes? Reich being a chap in whom I took an interest in a few years ago. See references 4 and 5.

PS 1: while on the domestic front, BH reports that the black water reported at reference 1 is responsible for some ugly stains on our (white) hand towels and elsewhere. Been sent for hand washing re-education.

PS 2: there was a sharp shower of rain while I was penning this. Sharp and electrical enough (not that there was any sign of thunder or lightning) to cause a short interruption of Internet service. Just long enough for BT to report it and suggest remedial action.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/07/broad-beans.html.

Reference 2: https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.99992/page/n39/mode/2up. A & B. Originally turned up in connection with the bugle feast, conveniently another 'B' word.

Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bean_goose.

Reference 4: Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the new science of the human past - David Reich – 2018.

Reference 5: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/search?q=reich.