Jeff from Memphis, Tennessee, grew up in the coalfields of Southeastern Kentucky, where his coal-miner father raised green beans. When those beans couldn’t always be canned or frozen, the family threaded the full pods onto string, hung them in the sun to dry, and then soaked and cooked them through the winter. He and many others in that region call them shucky beans. In parts of Appalachia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Virginia, they’re also called leather britches, probably because when dry, the stiff, leather-colored dried pods may be the color and shape of leather pants legs. Appalachian author Verna Mae Slone has described their flavor as nut-like and suggests serving them with cornbread, pickled beets, sauerkraut, and hog’s jaw or salt pork. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “In Appalachia and Parts of the South, Sun-Dried Green Beans Go by “Shucky Beans” or “Leather Britches””
Hello.
You have A Way with Words.
Hello.
This is Jeff.
I am in Memphis, Tennessee.
I was born and reared in the coal fields of Southeastern Kentucky.
My dad was a coal miner, and we raised our own vegetables.
And when we did, we raised green beans.
And those green beans couldn’t always be canned or frozen.
And so what was passed on to us was a thing called drying the beans.
And we would take the full green bean and take a needle and string it through the the bean until we got about an eight foot string of green beans.
And then we would hang them in the sun and let them dry out, and that’s the way we preserved them.
Mhmm.
And then all through the winter, take those and then soak them and cook them, and then we would eat them.
And they were called shucky beans, and some people call them leather britches.
Leather…
Like pants.
Leather pants.
Yes.
And have no idea where the name come from or where any of that originated from.
And I was just wondering if you could tell me because once I moved to nobody here in Memphis has ever heard of that type of bean.
It’s the big city.
They just don’t know country ways.
That’s all.
I bet those beans are tasty too.
I bet they’re incredibly tasty.
So Delicious.
So you’re rehydrating them after drying them out on a on a string.
Yes.
You know, this is all really familiar, Jeff.
I gotta tell you this is…
There are a couple really fantastic descriptions of this in in, you know, literature from Appalachia, and there’s a a couple of the books talk in particular about how it was kind of a social event to get everyone together to string the beans.
Exactly.
It was.
Then in one of the stories, it says something about it was bigger than the church dance.
Wow.
Well, I I don’t…
I wouldn’t even go that far.
Some churches don’t dance.
Yeah.
Churches don’t dance.
Oh, yeah.
So Shucky Beans and leather britches or breaches are widespread terms.
They’re…
They appear in Appalachia and the Carolinas, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia.
There are other names, maybe shuck beans or shucky beans or fodder beans or hay beans.
And the leather britches, I I don’t know what you think, Jeff and Martha, but I think it has to do with that color and texture that the dried out potholes get.
You know?
It’s it’s kind of like a stiff leather, like maybe the leather of a saddle or a baseball glove.
Sure.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And the shuckie maybe has to do with the corn husks, you know, the same idea.
Right.
So they’re they’re raspy and dry like a corn husk.
Yeah.
There you go.
And how do you like those, Jeff?
The…
One of the Vername Sloane, who is an Appalachian author, she describes the flavor as being nut like and said that maybe they would serve it with cornbread, pickled beets, or sauerkraut.
Oh, yes.
And and some kind of pork.
Yeah.
Some kind of pork.
Hog’s Jowl is what she says or salt pork.
Yeah.
Y’all, I can smell this conversation.
That’s so great.
I’ve all can have some beans, so hold on a second.
Jeff, thank you for sharing this with us.
But just know the the language that you’re using is shared by many others in the region, and it’s got a long precedent.
So you’re part of a you’re part of a big tradition, both in food and in language.
Well, thank you.
I appreciate it very much.
We appreciate the call.
You take care now.
Mhmm.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
Bye, Jeff.
What’s that traditional recipe that’s on your stove, and what do you call it?
Let us know.
