The Wisconsin magazine of history: Volume 13, number 1, September 1929

              18 the life of a lumberman bread i made in much the same manner as the bread had been made at home baked in a sheet iron oven over an open fire such bread is the best and most tasty made simply be cause it is baked over a slow fire in the most natural way the beans were cooked in the famous bean hole fashion there are on sale in grocery stores today in cans what are called bean hole beans but they bear no likeness to the de licious dish cooked in a cast iron kettle in the woods this method of preparing the beans was rather troublesome but the result more than repaid one a hole somewhat larger than the kettle used was dug in the ground and a good hard wood fire made in it when the hole was well burnt-out and the sides and bottom extremely hot the kettle containing the beans was placed on a layer of hardwood coals left in the bottom of the hole then live coals were piled all around the sides and on the top of the kettle which was covered with a tight fitting lid everything was then covered with a layer of ashes to retain the heat and the beans were left thus all night the coals remained red hot for hours and when the beans were taken out in the morning they were thoroughly cooked and of a flavor which could never be counterfeited in a canning factory conditions in the lumber camps of new brunswick were very crude at that time one large room constructed of logs served as kitchen dining room and sleeping quarters in the center of this room was a large open fireplace which served both as cook stove and heating system a round hole in the roof of the building directly over the fireplace car ried off most of the smoke — the rest of it dyed our hands and faces a deeper shade of brown i did my cooking over the open fire and served the meals to the men on rough benches grouped around the fireplace we slept on beds of brush in the same room and one huge blanket served to