Cidar Press

 We had a good market yesterday.

I brought some zucchini and yellow squash.

I only sold a few of each of those.

Most people either have it growing in their garden

or their neighbor has been sharing with them.

But I also brought some freeze dried apples.

And those were a hit.

I didn't sell out, but sold $56 worth.

(At $3 a bag...)

The little jars are samples.

I also brought a big jar of freeze dried

ice cream sandwich bites for people to taste.

EVERY single person LOVED them.

(Except one. There's always one.)

So I promised to bring some to sell next week.

I originally was only giving them to the vendors.

I always bring something to share with them,

and I guess they mentioned them to their

customers because people came over and asked

for a taste...

We had the largest group of vendors we've ever had.

I got there a few minutes late (I was on the phone with

Rod and the UHaul guy getting the truck paid for...)

so when I got there, a young lady was selling 

flavored lemonade in my spot.

Guess I'll need to be on time from now on..... lol.

Next to me was a food truck selling fancy drinks.

And next to them was the snow cone family.

We had a good turnout of folks buying as well.

Young families, older residents, even a few college students.

After it was over, Dave invited me to his home

to watch him and his wife, Mary, press the honeycrisp

apples they just picked from their tree.

So about 2:00 I headed over there.

It's a good old fashioned hand cranked press.

She cut the apples into halves and cut out all the

bad spots. (They only press the damaged ones...)

Then he ground them down and then put a wood

block on them and screwed it down with a giant screw.

The juice came running out the bottom into a bucket

and then we poured that into jugs.

They invited me into their basement.

(I haven't been in a basement in FOREVER!)

where they had buckets of the good, undamaged apples.

I had mentioned last week I would love to buy some.

So he offered me a bucket. 

They are reluctant to sell them because she uses 

them for all sorts of things... but they got a bumper

crop this year. Their tree was so loaded the branches

were laying on the ground.

I bought a 7 gallon bucket for $30.

(She asked $25, but that was a LOT of apples...)

So.

I'll be processing apples for a bit, I guess!

They are SO delicious though. We will keep some

for just fresh eating.

Honeycrisp is one of our favorites.

She also handed me a tray of tomatoes as I was leaving.

She didn't see them when she was packing up for

the market and had already processed the ones

that didn't sell, and then turned around and found

this extra tray. And their garden is full of MORE.

Time to learn what to do with them I guess.

All in all, it was a good, busy day.

Meanwhile, the guys got the truck nearly loaded.

They worked HARD all day.

They will finish up today and hit the road Monday.

Again, please keep them in your prayers.

I'll update as I can, but I expect to see them

on Wednesday!!!!!!