bean breaking n Also bean-breaking party sAppalachians, esp KY old-fash Cf bean stringing n
A social gathering at which bean pods are broken into short lengths for drying or canning.
1969 Middlesboro Daily News (KY) 29 July 4/3, Several women in the community met last Wednesday in the home of Mrs. Maude Cavin for an old-fashioned bean breaking. 1982 Powers Cataloochee 161 cwNC (as of a1940), Once we were having a great time in a bean-breaking. Everyone was working hard and getting a large pile of those green beans ready for pickling. . . Some of the girls would be stringing. . . Others would be breaking the green beans into pieces about ¾ inches in length. 1983 Times Tribune (Corbin KY) 3 June 14/1, [Caption:] As part of National Nursing Home Week, . . residents of Mt. Laurel Manor held a bean-breaking party. 1999 Ibid 7 Aug sec A 5/1, They decide what they want to do, and I make the arrangements for them to do it. . . We’ve had cook-outs, melon parties, bean breakings and fishing trips. [2007 Farr My Appalachia 110 seKY, The second way to prepare beans for drying was to break off the ends and strings from both sides, then break each pod into bite-size pieces, usually between each bean in the pod. . . Many women preferred to break their beans before drying because, they said, it was easier to prepare the dried beans for cooking.]