Hay Days and Apple Processing Time!

Apple harvest time is here again... Thanks to Mr. Hollow! :)

Hubby's yearly travels takes him to Hay Days in North Branch, Minnesota.  (It is a Huge snowmobile swap meet.)  He goes with his brother every September and always arrives home with new treasures.  Past purchases have involved sled tracks and parts, truck rims and tires, chainsaw parts... You name it and they have it there for the guys.  Well this year on his way home, he decided to stop by the town of Gayes Mills and bring a few things back for yours truly...  2 Bushels of Apples! :)

Aren't they lovely?
  

As if the apples were not enough, he purchased some fresh cider donuts, and a gallon of apple cider to be heated and spiced up!  Mmmmm...

This past week has been busy with peeling and slicing, which has been a breeze thanks to my handy dandy apple peeler/slicer from the Pampered Chef.  What a time saver!

For a huge money saving versus grocery store prices, I decided to flash freeze and pack 21 quarts of apple slices this year, along with 3 quarts of halved apples, 12 quarts of applesauce, 3 large pies, a caramel apple pie  and 2 dozen pies in a jar.  (Pies in a jar can be read about in an earlier post here. )  That still left plenty of apples for slicing and pouring caramel over... Yum!

Mr. Hollow and I might still do some travelling near the orchards before the season is over and will definitely pop in to enjoy the smells and sites of the season, but I am relieved to have the processing of the apples is over for the year. :) 

The 127 Yard Sale Finds of 2012 ~ Vintage Feedsack Cloth

Here is part one of my haul on this year's 127 Yard Sale.  It is now over 600 miles of great buys.  The weather was beautiful and not as balmy as years past.  Unfortunately, some of our southern bargain hunters were met by rain showers.  We were lucky and missed the rain by the hour and were blessed with lower temps, due to the cloud cover!  :)

This post is dedicated to one of my Tennessee finds... Vintage feedsack cloth.  I stumbled across this on the beginning of our 3rd day of the sales.  Vendors were set up in storage sheds along the highway that were safe from the previous days showers.  Since they had lost a day to rain, everyone was making deals!

It was in one of these sheds that I found a clear zippered bag full of feedsack cloth remnants.  Yay!!  I love the idea of leftovers and the vast variety of patterns.  Aren't they just lovely?  *sigh*

I can spend hours researching the history to these pieces of cloth from days gone by... 

Here is a close up of the "Alice in Wonderland" print.  It is one of the "hard to find" designs.  I have only seen it once with a lavender background.  The flowers are just as whimsical on the green cloth.  :) 

Next to the bag of remnants, there were whole feedsacks.  Score!  As I was opening up sacks, the vendors started making deals.  They were keeping an eye on the dark rain clouds looming in the distance and were determined not  to lose another day of business.  So, we bundled all the material together, they threw out the price of $16.00, and I left thrilled with my finds! 

***A little note of gained knowledge... As I was finishing up my purchase, the woman was kind enough to point out that I had left behind two feedsacks.  Not wanting to insult her, I remained silent about those left behind, but it was running through my head that those remaining were old pillowcases.  Having a general knowledge of feedsack patterns, I felt confident leaving them behind.  Once we arrived home, I began researching the basic designs on these "pillowcases".  The vendor was correct about them being a vintage sack.

The remaining bags were Gold Medal Flour sacks.  They were designed to have a simple pattern around the opening, making them perfect for pillowcases. ;)   Even though they will not be gracing my growing collection, I am always excited to expand my knowledge of this fascinating phenomenon of our American agricultural history.  :)