Treasure Hunting Success

 Yesterday I woke up to everything covered with snow.  Not a lot of snow, but just enough to make it known that Mother Nature was 1 up on the weather forecasters.  It was enough that we had to scrape it off our cars and windshields though.   Today, I headed into a nearby town to go to the thrift store there.   There were off lake snow squalls, but they looked light enough, so I didn't worry.   It wasn't bad to start with.  About half way there, the roads started getting wet and slushy.  Then there were blown over and drifted areas on the roads, in areas with few trees or hedge rows by the sides of the road.   The snow got heavier  and then poof, I turned onto the highway, and it was suddenly sunny.   All the rest of the way there was lovely.   I got out of the store with my few treasures, and the snow was coming down heavily, with more than a little wind.  It got worse on the highway.  Thankfully it was a short drive to my turn off.   The next turn I needed to take, I thought I might miss because there was near zero visibility.  It eased off just before I needed to turn.   The roads were snow covered and sloppy.  Then halfway home, the roads dried up, the snow stopped and it was sunny.   What a weird weather day!

I did get a few treasures though.  I was sent out to get whatever "junk" I wanted.  I disagreed with that description, but none the less, I continued.   These are treasures for sure!  The melon mould is almost a replacement for the damaged one I lost.   It's longer than the one I really liked.  This one has a small dent in it, but it was $1.50.   I can live with the dent for that price.   The cup and saucer was $4, which was a reasonable price for it.  The little lustreware pickle dish though, was $1.   I couldn't leave it there for that price!  It's a weird purple, though it shows up as blue in the photo.  It's simply labelled Japan.  I don't know how old it is, but it's pretty and the price was a bargain.

I also found this old canning jar.  I've been looking for one of these for quite a while but they are always out of my price range.   I've seen them in the $30 to $65 range and I've only seen 2, maybe 3 over the years.   This one was sitting on the shelf, waiting for me and priced at a grand total of $3! 

 In all, I spent $17.50, which included $8 for an older apple peeler.   I have a modern one, but the suction clamp is broken and the slicing blade rusted and became dangerous.   Now it only peels and you have to hold it down.  The new to me one, has a screw clamp for the table and all the parts are clean and not rusty.  It's quite heavy too, compared to the modern one, despite the modern one being metal.   I'll have to get some apples to see if it works.  It's pretty though, and I love the red colour!

There were a few other things I would have liked to get, like a set of old ceramic mixing bowls, some enamel pots and even an old Foley type food mill.   However I didn't really have space for any of those items, except maybe the food mill, which I have been looking for, mainly to strain seedy berries for jam.  However, it was a bit wobbly and had some black discolouration, so I left it there for the moment.

End of August update

The river on a late summer hike

 This morning had a bit of unexpected excitement.  When I put my glasses on when I woke up, I realised that they were broken!  They were fine when I took them off at bedtime.   Of course without my glasses I couldn't see what was wrong with them, although I did find the missing lens and knew that the frame was unattached at the earpiece thing.   Luckily hubby figured out that a tiny screw had fallen out and by disassembling an old pair of glasses, he was able to fix mine with the scavenged screw.  I was so happy to be able to see clearly again without old glasses or sneaking hubby's glasses, which worked okay in a pinch, although not perfect.

Yesterday I harvested some garden tomatoes.    They are finally starting to ripen.  I've eaten a cucumber and cherry tomatoes for lunch for half the summer, which was lovely.   I've gotten 1.25kg of blackberries in the freezer.   I could easily get another 1 or 2 pickings in,  but I'm not sure it's worth it.   This time of year the seedy berries sometimes get even seedier and they are smaller pickings, for the same amount of work.   I have more than enough for a good batch of jam.

Last time I made blackberry jam, I pressed all the berries though a sieve with a wooden spoon. I've been looking for a Foley's food mill to make that job easier but they don't seem to be available any longer.  These are the metal cone mortar and pestle shaped ones.   The last time I saw one in a store a couple of years ago, I was very tempted to buy it as I've wanted one for years, but the price was really crazy high.   Amazon has one but it's fairly small  and almost $100.   I'm not sure I want to spend that much for a tool I'll only use a few times a year.

 Second choice is a grinder type food mill.   They are more reasonably priced.   When the kids were young, a friend and I would get together a couple of nights in the fall to freeze corn and make apple sauce.  It meant that we each had a freezer full with only a couple of hours of work and fun.    She had a food mill, which was old but really sturdy.  It ground up the apples in no time.   I'm hoping to find one as well built as that.  

I'm ticked at myself for not buying Plums when they were in the store.   Prune plums make spectacular jam.  If you chop them fine enough, you don't even have to peel them, as the peels will dissolve while cooking.   Maybe there will be some left at the market.

On a grey, damp day we went for a walk through the antique mall.   One booth had a few copper moulds in it.  One was $25 and another shopper and I commiserated over that being a ridiculous price for a jelly mould.   She would only pay $5 for one, and because I will pay a couple of dollars more if it's one I really like and don't have, I found these 3.  The strawberry one had some gunk on it, which the $25 one, the same strawberry mould didn't have.   I paid $8 for these and the gunk washed right off the mould with no scratching, discolouration or residue.  I was happy.