{"id":118512,"date":"2023-12-07T16:11:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-07T20:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=118512"},"modified":"2023-12-08T17:06:56","modified_gmt":"2023-12-08T21:06:56","slug":"walden-bean-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/walden-bean-field\/","title":{"rendered":"The Walden Bean Field: How Thoreau Spent His Mornings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Why did Henry David Thoreau plant beans at Walden? How did his bean field occupy so much of his time?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the 1840s, Henry David Thoreau built a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/henry-david-thoreaus-cabin\/\">cabin at Walden<\/a> Pond, on the outskirts of Concord, Massachusetts, and lived there for two years. While we usually think of Thoreau spending time in the woods, he spent a considerable amount of time in his field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keep reading to learn about the Walden bean field and what it provided Thoreau.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-walden-bean-field\">The Walden Bean Field<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The Walden bean field wasn&#8217;t about food for Thoreau to eat; it was a money-making venture. Thoreau realized that he needed to make a modest amount of money to pay for his living expenses, such as food and farming supplies, which he calculated at about $10 to $12 annually. (Shortform note: $10 in 1845 is equivalent to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.officialdata.org\/us\/inflation\/1845?amount=10\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">about $404 in 2023<\/a>.) He calculated that his diet of bread (homemade with rye and cornmeal), potatoes, rice, salt pork, and molasses cost 27 cents per week. He made a point of not purchasing tea, coffee, butter, milk, or fresh meat. He even stopped buying yeast after he realized that he could bake bread without it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: Readers have noted that Thoreau\u2019s diet, though frugal, was <a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/illumination\/could-you-live-like-thoreau-on-walden-pond-in-2021-79ca45d6f0c4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">hardly nutritionally balanced<\/a>. Physician Benjamin Sandler, a specialist in preventative nutrition, theorizes that the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/thesalt\/2017\/07\/11\/535770269\/what-did-thoreau-really-eat-you-might-be-surprised\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">high-carb, low-protein diet<\/a> Thoreau ate at Walden may have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.seleneriverpress.com\/historical\/thoreau-pulmonary-tuberculosis-and-dietary-deficiency\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">left him particularly vulnerable<\/a> to tuberculosis. Tuberculosis is the lung infection that Thoreau dealt with <a href=\"https:\/\/lithub.com\/henry-david-thoreau-was-funnier-than-you-think-particularly-on-the-subject-of-work\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">throughout his adult life<\/a> and that ultimately killed him at age 44. He caught a bad cold <a href=\"https:\/\/thoreau.library.ucsb.edu\/thoreau_faq.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">while counting tree rings<\/a> in December of 1860, never quite recovered, and died of tuberculosis in May 1862.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>To cover his expenses, Thoreau planted a 2.5-acre field primarily with beans. He also grew potatoes, corn, peas, and turnips<\/strong>. He explains that, though he didn\u2019t particularly want beans to eat, he cultivated them to sell or to trade for rice. Tending the field took considerable time his first summer at Walden. Because his rows of beans totaled seven miles in length, he worked from five in the morning until noon each day in the field. Thoreau writes that he threw himself into the process of planting, hoeing, harvesting, threshing, picking, and selling beans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thoreau even found value in the work that went into preparing the field for planting. That process revealed that <strong>he wasn\u2019t the first person to live on the land<\/strong>. He found arrowheads, stones burned by fires, and bits of pottery and glass that provided concrete evidence of the land\u2019s past occupants. (Shortform note: A <a href=\"https:\/\/native-land.ca\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">searchable map<\/a> published by an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2022\/10\/10\/1127837659\/native-land-map-ancestral-tribal-lands-worldwide\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">indigenous-led nonprofit<\/a> called Native Land Digital shows that Walden Pond is located in Nipmuc, Massa-adchu-es-et (Massachusett), Pawtucket, and Agawam territory.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>Thoreau and His Bean Field&nbsp;<\/strong><br><br>While planting 2.5 acres of beans sounds a bit excessive, Thoreau made a good choice of crops. Beans were the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/history\/2021\/11\/28\/thoreau-walden-brister-freeman-slavery\/?pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWJpZCI6IjIxOTU3NjQiLCJyZWFzb24iOiJnaWZ0IiwibmJmIjoxNjM4MTA5NzAwLCJpc3MiOiJzdWJzY3JpcHRpb25zIiwiZXhwIjoxNjM5MzE5MzAwLCJpYXQiOjE2MzgxMDk3MDAsImp0aSI6IjkyOWQwZTU2LTE3ZjQtNDk2NC1iOTI0LTA0ZTU3M2UxZjdhOSIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS9oaXN0b3J5LzIwMjEvMTEvMjgvdGhvcmVhdS13YWxkZW4tYnJpc3Rlci1mcmVlbWFuLXNsYXZlcnkvIn0.3OrSow0Vov1Md-5mjJVAVSO_KsOfGgzajG4BzZQNwXw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">rare food that would grow<\/a> in the infertile soil in Walden Woods. (The poor soil is one reason the residents of Black Walden struggled to survive. Some even <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wbur.org\/radioboston\/2017\/07\/12\/walden-thoreau-forgotten\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">died of malnutrition<\/a>.) Experts say that efforts to cultivate land in the woods long predated <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/walden-life-in-the-woods\/\">Thoreau\u2019s Walden<\/a> or Black Walden before it. As Thoreau saw when he discovered artifacts left behind by indigenous people, what we think of as \u201cvirgin\u201d soil or \u201cpristine\u201d wilderness is rarely untouched. It\u2019s usually been under the care of indigenous peoples for thousands of years.<br><br>Michael Pollan (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/app\/book\/in-defense-of-food\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>In Defense of Food<\/em><\/a>) notes that Thoreau\u2014along with naturalists and environmentalists who have followed in his footsteps\u2014assumed that <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelpollan.com\/articles-archive\/weeds-are-us\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">human culture is the problem<\/a> in our relationship with the environment. Naturalists often urge people to live with nature as equals. But, in reality, indigenous peoples, including those of North America, have long <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalgeographic.com\/environment\/article\/forest-gardens-show-how-native-land-stewardship-can-outdo-nature?loggedin=true&amp;rnd=1695410815149\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">traditions of land stewardship<\/a> that make nature more resilient and more diverse. As Robin Wall Kimmerer explains in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/app\/book\/braiding-sweetgrass\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Braiding Sweetgrass<\/em><\/a>, the ecologically informed practices through which indigenous people care for the land have been shown to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/app\/book\/braiding-sweetgrass\/1-page-summary#guidance-from-research-on-land-stewardship\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">help natural environments thrive<\/a>.<br><br>Experts also say that ideas about what constitutes a \u201cpure\u201d or \u201cauthentic\u201d way of living in the natural world aren\u2019t as innocuous as they seem. Thoreau\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/164828\/emerson-thoreau-fanatical-freedom-transcendentalists\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">desire to \u201clive deliberately<\/a>\u201d exemplifies what scholar Philip Deloria has <a href=\"https:\/\/yalebooks.yale.edu\/book\/9780300080674\/playing-indian\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">called \u201cplaying Indian<\/a>\u201d\u2014when white Americans use ideas that idealize and villainize indigenous Americans to create their own national identity. Critics say that Thoreau participated in this tradition not only by laying claim to land that was stolen from its original inhabitants but also by adopting misinformed ideas about what it meant for indigenous people to live an \u201cauthentic\u201d life on that land.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why did Henry David Thoreau plant beans at Walden? How did his bean field occupy so much of his time? In the 1840s, Henry David Thoreau built a cabin at Walden Pond, on the outskirts of Concord, Massachusetts, and lived there for two years. While we usually think of Thoreau spending time in the woods, he spent a considerable amount of time in his field. Keep reading to learn about the Walden bean field and what it provided Thoreau.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":118519,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,33],"tags":[1338],"class_list":["post-118512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","category-people","tag-walden","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Walden Bean Field: How Thoreau Spent His Mornings - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When we think of Thoreau at Walden, we think of him spending time in the woods. But, he also spent a lot of time in his bean field. Learn why.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/walden-bean-field\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Walden Bean Field: How Thoreau Spent His Mornings\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When we think of Thoreau at Walden, we think of him spending time in the woods. But, he also spent a lot of time in his bean field. Learn why.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/walden-bean-field\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-12-07T20:11:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-12-08T21:06:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/soybean-crop-field-farm.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Elizabeth Whitworth\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Elizabeth Whitworth\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/walden-bean-field\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/walden-bean-field\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Elizabeth Whitworth\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d2928cf6c11a69ced1491d6a5b74fb13\"},\"headline\":\"The Walden Bean Field: How Thoreau Spent His Mornings\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-12-07T20:11:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-12-08T21:06:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/walden-bean-field\/\"},\"wordCount\":769,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/walden-bean-field\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/soybean-crop-field-farm.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Walden\"],\"articleSection\":[\"History\",\"People\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/walden-bean-field\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/walden-bean-field\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/walden-bean-field\/\",\"name\":\"The Walden Bean Field: How Thoreau Spent His Mornings - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/walden-bean-field\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/walden-bean-field\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/soybean-crop-field-farm.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-12-07T20:11:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-12-08T21:06:56+00:00\",\"description\":\"When we think of Thoreau at Walden, we think of him spending time in the woods. 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