Stories Related to Families Earn Immortality In Goodness Of Green Beans

A student in my Foodways of Appalachia class walked in one day with seeds and a story. “Have you ever grown any Walker Sisters beans?” she asked that day. I hadn’t, but the next spring we planted them, and they produced the longest, fullest green beans we had ever seen. I then began to learn more about the people who had kept these prolific beans alive. The Walker Sisters, who lived on land that would ultimately be incorporated into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, were known for their self-sufficiency.