Central/Eastern: May 2009 Archives

You probably know by now that I love yard sales, and of course I recognize that it's almost a must-do on spring and summer weekends in York County.

So this morning, we loaded the whole family into the car and headed over to some neighborhoods in Manchester Township for a couple of community yard sales.

Best find went to my mom, who got a brand-new summer purse for $2. Daughter Sarah got a 50-cent T-shirt with a panda on it from the Washington Zoo. Hubby got a book from a "free" box. Lunch, for my mom and me, was a yummy, freshly grilled hot dog (75 cents!) from one yard-saler.

And guess what I got? Something for the blog!

It's "A Taste of Pennsylvnia Recipe Book" published by the Pennsylvania Dept. of Agriculture and it only cost a quarter!

Be on the lookout for recipes from it in the coming days, including some more great ways to use local fresh fruit. (Don't forget to vote for your favorite local fruit in the post before this one!)

Anyone else have good yard-sale finds or news of coming sales to report? Comment and let me know!

Remember back in January, when I was talking about chow-chow?

Well, that sprung from some discussion on The Exchange about this local pickled favorite, sparked by member Strahan.

Well, a while after that, I got a letter from "J. Wolf" in Dallastown, who wrote: "If Strahan is interested in really great chow-chow - go to the Country Table in Mount Joy. A short drive for really delicious chow-chow."

If you want to know more, check out that Exchange topic. Strahan ended up buying five different kinds in Lancaster and York counties and doing a taste-test, and you'll be happy to know that it was a York-made product that won!

One unusual hobby that Hubby and I share is the love of decrepit places. We love nothing more than going for a drive and finding buildings falling down. One of our best finds was an abandoned mini golf course - that was amazing!

Anyway, we love to take pictures of these things, mostly all around Pennsylvania. Our dream is to start a photo gallery Web site with a name like "Pennsylvania in ruins" to chronicle all these, in which we'd post ours and also take submissions or suggestions.

Well, on Sunday, while Chris was leaving Heritage Hills, where his family had a scrumptious Mother's Day brunch, he snapped this photo at Mount Rose Avenue and Route 24.

We think it's a shame that this intersection - one of the county's most congested, I'd wager - has such a falling-down building on one of its corners. I was talking to my boss about it; his wife works at a facility inside the HardKohr gym there (formerly Yorktowne Racket & Fitness), and he said the problem is that it's possible they could want to widen the road there to allow for turning lanes. So, of course, all the business owners are worried about how much of their property would be taken for that, and that means this lot likely won't sell.

I can definitely see why that's a problem. But, come on. Only in York County do you have a building that still has "Vote Kerry" graffiti in 2009.