Notes from the Beanfield

Artist and OSU professor Michael Mercil is in his second year nurturing The Beanfield, an organic public art project outside the Wexner Center on College Road. Click here to find out more about the Beanfield, which is growing thicker and taller by the day. Below are musings from Mercil's own Beanfield notebook from the last month or so, starting with the most recent entry.

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Returned yesterday from week in New York City, so now busy catching up in the field. Still picking beetles by the hundreds, but now also beans by the truckload. Free packs of seed will soon be available to Wexner Center visitors from a bowl placed inside near the information desk. Meanwhile, raw beans available to anyone I happen to meet.

Fair trade
The weather is hot and humid, and the plants have formed a near solid mass of green. Over the past two days I harvested more than two bushels of beans, and not all varieties are yet producing. Beetles are most pesky high-up where they are difficult to reach. Slowly I pick my way through, across and along the rows, taking care not to damage the plants. In the soggy daytime air the broad green leaves scratch and cling to my skin, so now I wear a long-sleeved cotton shirt. My shirt and broad-brimmed hat might appear to be a costume, but form follows function and such clothes become my safety gear.

This morning I gave two sacks of beans to someone who afterwards brought me two ripe nectarines. They made a juicy instant picnic lunch.