When did you last buy a jar of apple butter that was still warm? I’ll give you a minute to think.

Exactly. Me neither.

But Friday night at the MCC sale I was able to buy a pint jar that was still warm from the kettle. It was $6, and that seems like a bargain to me.

This is Grandpa Kauffman’s recipe and it has been offered at the MCC sale in Hutchinson for about 20 years. But there has been a five year gap, and this is their first year back. Supplies were limited, so I wanted to make sure I put my hands on some. They made two kettles, starting at about 5:30 Friday morning. By 11 a.m. they had finished the cooking and were ready to pack it. Two kettles made 512 pints. Although I didn’t go back to the sale today, I’m sure they probably sold out.

I try to never miss the MCC (Mennonite Central Committee) Sale. It raises money for hunger relief around the world. These events happen around the country and this is a large one.

It’s almost like travelling into another country. It’s certainly another culture. I know “Mennonite” in some places is kind of a scary thing, but that’s not the case here. The Mennonite congregations are full of wonderful people as far as I can tell.

I was so glad they had good weather – as opposed to last year when there was snow.

One of the big events is the quilt auction. They have tons and tons of quilts of all sorts. They’re all on display for people to look at before the auction.

They also have the “sit and sew” area where people can sit and quilt, and the rest of us who don’t know how to do it can watch and learn.

These ladies were visiting while they sewed.

I, of course, had already stopped by my very favorite display, “Quilter’s Corner,” where they sell donated items – from vintage fabric to quilt tops to doilies. I will try to take some photos of the huge stack of goodies I bought, but you can get a sense of them by this photo of Greg and Cleta. Greg had to hold my box while I went to take photos of the quilts.

The sack on top is his stuff, but you can see my doilies peeking out of the corner of the box. I ran into Cleta and her husband, Tom, when I was headed to take pix. When I came back they were visiting with Greg.

There are also other interesting little bits at the MCC sale, and lots of food. We ate at the German buffet, of course, and then started sight seeing.

Right next to the apple butter was the pysanky egg display. I must refer you to Greg’s piece from last year for more details about the process. As usual, I leave the details to him.

The young lady showed me these two eggs. The one on the right is a wooden one. Her mom, Janet Regier, copied the design onto a real egg. The darker color on the wooden one is because of how it’s done. The main color is applied and then the other things are done on top of it, giving them all a muddy look. The egg done by Regier has just one color on each space on the egg, so the colors are all more distinct.

The MCC sale is one of my favorite events in Hutchinson. I am always surprised more people don’t go and enjoy it, but I rarely run into anyone I know there.

Last night I did see Jay and Lois Huber and it was great to say hello to them. I worked with Jay for many years, we even shared an office for a while, and always really liked him. So, it was good to bump into them.

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I promised photos of my new acquisitions this past weekend at the MCC sale. My favorite part of it is the “Quilter’s Corner,” where they have not only quilts and things to make quilts, but also other kinds of needlework too, including vintage linens.

I am absolutely in love with hand crocheted lace and fine embroidery. This is part of a dresser scarf that I loved. The embroidery is delicate with perfect tiny stitches and the lace was crocheted seperately and then sewn on with the same verigated thread.

This scarf had such a sweet design. Magazines used to include patterns with each publication. Businesses would give them away and books were readily available for a few pennies. Everyone did handwork, generally more than one kind of handwork.

I bought a number of things with hand crocheted lace on them, including a set of pillowcases I’m planning to use on the bed. They’re in great shape and are embroidered with morning glories, one of my favorite flowers. After a washing they’ll be on my bed. The pair of them was $3 and there’s nothing wrong with them.

I couldn’t resist a closeup showing the tiny stitches in these pillowcases. I wonder when ladies had the time to do this work. It’s funny how we talk about how we have no time and these ladies were working much harder than we are today just to handle basic life chores, and yet they found time to create these beautiful things to enhance their lives.

I often say life is in the details and these things are such a prime example of that. They could have just embroidered the pillowcase, but they went a step further and crocheted lace to go around the bottom of it, too.

I also bought this scarf that had these beautiful large pineapples on three sides. I wonder if it was meant to go on a piano or a fireplace.

The single most striking piece I bought was another pillow case with an unusual decoration.

This is all beautiful crochet. It has one little broken edge and I’m going to sew it back together and use the case. I just adore this and I’ve never seen anything like it.

I also bought a number of doilies – something else I love. I have them all over the house. I guess that might seem weird for someone my age, but I have always loved this sort of thing – even when I was a kid.

The yellow one below is now on my coffee table. My living room walls are a pale yellow so it’s a perfect match.

Pineapples, as you see in this and also in the scarf edging above, were a Victorian symbol of hospitality, and they remained a popular motif well into the 20th century. If you notice when you visit Victorian homes, you’ll often see the pineapple in stained glass or in carved woods. I find such things quite charming.

I also purchased two very old quilts at the sale. They are too worn to be of interest to serious collectors, but I adore them. They were $5 each.

The mere fact that they’re hand stitched is sufficient for me to buy them at that price. Hand pieced and hand quilted items are rarely made these days.

I’m often surprised by how much creativity people showed when doing their handwork. This red polka dot material was the backing on one of the quilts and it was also used as the center for every star on the front of the quilt.

The other places where you see the polka dots are where the top has worn away, but each star has a centered dot. Lovely.

I also picked up what was once a Sunbonnet Sue quilt.

I also couldn’t resist this piece of what was going to be a double wedding ring quilt. I love it because you can see the pieces are made from fabric that is already worn. Quilts were not always made by starting with new material – quite the opposite – quilts were made from the fabric that had become too worn out to be used as clothing anymore.

Although I bought many other goodies, I’ll share just one more – this little scrap that was meant to be embroidered.

Tonight was the start of the annual MCC sale. The Mennonite Central Committee raises thousands of dollars at this sale for hunger relief around the world. I’m afraid this weekend’s receipts will be lower because of the weather. We have a few inches of snow on the ground. Yes, snow. Lots of snow.

The sale is held at the Kansas State Fairgrounds, not a place I’m used to seeing covered in snow. The fair is held in September, during a week we usually have some hot weather and some cooler weather.

Fairgoers will recognize this as the top of the Olde Mill Ride, at the fair since 1915.

Fortunately, some brave souls were out in the weather, but there were many fewer of us than usual.

It snowed very hard for a few hours, starting late afternoon and continuing into the early evening.

I think this picture embodies the phrase, “bent against the cold.” It was 31 degrees, but it seems colder when there’s frozen ice pelting you from above. The rain started overnight, then we had rain and sleet briefly, then rain and snow, then just snow.

One of the big attractions of the MCC sale is the traditional German food. We usually have to wait in line, but not today. There was a turnout, but nothing like usual.

The food is all wonderful – everything from Verenike to homemade rolls to new year’s cookies to  homemade pies.

And it’s all provided by people you know you can trust.

You’ll see lots of young people working at the MCC sale, too. It’s a multi-generational event.

There are auctions for all sorts of things… small items to large items.

Quilts are big moneymakers at the sale.

I picked up some goodies at the quilter’s corner – namely some vintage linens. I’ll try to get some photos in the next few days.

My toes are still cold from walking back to the car in the snow and slush. But I’m glad I didn’t miss out.

Greg and I went to the Mennonite Relief Sale tonight. We ate at the German buffet and both nearly made ourselves sick. We had verenike, borcht and bohne berrogi. I also had some zwiebach and Greg had cherry moos.

It rained most of the day and it was windy and cold tonight. But, it didn’t seem to hurt their crowds too much. It’s a pretty devoted group. They had us come in the building and go upstairs, then walk around the top of it and back down on the other side. I’m sure they were trying to keep from having people out in the rain. But it stopped about 4:30.

I bought some New Year’s cookies to bring home. But at the moment I’m still stuffed. I, at least, had the good sense to get a small bowl of borcht. But, I had two bohne berrogi, which is about double what one person should consume. And did I mention both Greg and I ate pecan pie? It’s hard to resist all that food that’s prepared by real people, not machines. And, the people who prepare it do so with wonderful intention, which I’m convinced impacts the food also.

Oddly enough, I’d heard of very few of these things until I moved to Kansas. I’m not even going to try and explain them, but if you google them you’ll get an idea. Some of them sound really disgusting, but somehow when they’re made my little Mennonite ladies and served at the Kansas State Fairgrounds en masse it works. I don’t know why, it just does.

Tomorrow they will have the quilt auction, which brings in lots of money. Some of those quilts go for thousands of dollars.

The churches work on this sale all year long. They raise tons of money for hunger relief all over the world. It’s an amazing operation. They seem to think of everything.

One of my favorite spots is what they call the “Quilter’s Corner,” where they have fabric and quilt blocks and books and that sort of thing. They also have a little section devoted to hand crocheted items and linens. I always come home with some and tonight was no exception. I noticed tonight in my bag they had a little flyer asking people to remember them when cleaning out their sewing rooms and said they had raised $75,000 over the last 10 years.

They have a variety of things – something for everyone. I guess in some areas Mennonites are pretty radical, but the groups here are fabulous. The MCC sale gets widespread support from the entire community.

Greg and I went to the MCC sale tonight. They’re held in various places, but this is the only place I’ve ever lived where there is one. The money is used to relieve hunger all over the world. The Mennonites here are a wonderful group – conservative but not radical.

We always do the German buffet. There’s always a line about three blocks long to get into the building. It’s better now that we have a new food building at the fair. They serve a variety of things that you’d never get any where else.

At our sale there are lots and lots of quilts to auction off, as well as other goodies. People make quilts to donate all year long. They have them on these racks, and cover them with plastic so people don’t get them dirty.

Hundreds of volunteers here help make this happen tonight, and I can’t imagine how many thousands of hours occur beforehand to cook all the food. Years ago I did a story about making food for the MCC sale. I went to a church and talked to the ladies. They were making verenike, which is a cottage cheese filled pastry covered with ham gravy. I know, it doesn’t sound good, but it really is.

Hundreds of people agree as you can see in this photo. We sat on the balcony and could see down into the main area. You can see people snaking into the door from the outside line. At the far end are the lines you go through to get your food. It’s quite an amazing operation – very, very, very organized. They’ve thought of everything. There are even people with flags to indicate where there are empty seats when it’s really busy.

The sale here has tons of handwork, including this 50 inch round doily. Yes, that’s not a typo – 50 inches. It will be auctioned tomorrow, along with the quilts.

I’m always amazed at the effort that people go to and the time involved in making some of these things. I have made one small quilted wallhanging. I can’t imagine the effort involved in one of these wonderful, intricate pieces. I’d love to own one of these but they go for prices far out of my range.

They also sell crafts and plants and other cool goodies. I bought some Christmas ornaments and some old cookbooks I’m going to enjoy looking through. From 1954 is “250 Delectable Desserts.” There’s also a chocolate one from 1950 that has some photos from Gourmet. Anyway, they’ll be fun to look through. Maybe I’ll have some new recipes to share here soon.