Moral dilemma, philosophical puzzle
Concerning beans.
In my garden I have grown too many beans. The runners and climbing French have done unexpectedly well and demand has been outstripped.
My freezer is full now and I do not have the right sort of dinners planned to use the beans for our next few days' meals.
I seem to have been too busy/apathetic/lazy to have picked the beans to give to beanless friends/neighbours. (Harvesting beans is actually time consuming, and so is preparing them for the freezer or saucepan).
As a result, the plants are laden with overgrown, useless beans. So is this situation:
a) shocking - it is a sin to waste food
b) shameful - when some people are going hungry
c) disgraceful - I am sloppy and disorganised
OR
d) okay - I have used what I need, if other people wanted beans they would grow their own
e) nothing to worry about - the excess will be used as compost
f) a non-issue - I could think of the vegetables as decoration rather than a food crop, if I'd grown roses I wouldn't be worried that I'd not eaten them
g) a good thing - I am using my time for other more important things, rather than dealing with unwanted excess food
I am trying to think of my beans in terms of letters d to g. Feeling guilty is negative and should be discouraged. As Edith Piaf sang, "Je ne regrette rien, meme si mes haricots sont trop grands." Do correct me if I'm wrong.
In my garden I have grown too many beans. The runners and climbing French have done unexpectedly well and demand has been outstripped.
My freezer is full now and I do not have the right sort of dinners planned to use the beans for our next few days' meals.
I seem to have been too busy/apathetic/lazy to have picked the beans to give to beanless friends/neighbours. (Harvesting beans is actually time consuming, and so is preparing them for the freezer or saucepan).
As a result, the plants are laden with overgrown, useless beans. So is this situation:
a) shocking - it is a sin to waste food
b) shameful - when some people are going hungry
c) disgraceful - I am sloppy and disorganised
OR
d) okay - I have used what I need, if other people wanted beans they would grow their own
e) nothing to worry about - the excess will be used as compost
f) a non-issue - I could think of the vegetables as decoration rather than a food crop, if I'd grown roses I wouldn't be worried that I'd not eaten them
g) a good thing - I am using my time for other more important things, rather than dealing with unwanted excess food
I am trying to think of my beans in terms of letters d to g. Feeling guilty is negative and should be discouraged. As Edith Piaf sang, "Je ne regrette rien, meme si mes haricots sont trop grands." Do correct me if I'm wrong.
posted by Irene Adler @ 9:58 pm
2 Comments:
At 07 October, 2005 14:18,
Anonymous said…
I am very disturbed at your bean plague, particularly as I had to pay £1.99 for a small bag of the aforesaid vegetable the other day. Runner beans were about the same for around 6.
Do you think they would survive the post??
At 08 October, 2005 21:14,
Irene Adler said…
Elizabeth,
I should think they would survive the post, more or less, but the effort and postage costs might render the whole exercise pointless. They are very big beans, and that usually means stringy. I would not want you to be disappointed and a stringy bean never pleases.
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