"Better Living Through Garage Sales"

...Is the tagline of this blog. And it is the whole point. Everything else--the thrill of the find, the satisfaction of a good bargain, the small footprint/recycling aspect, the entertainment and camaraderie that a weekly date of saleing with friends provides--is really just gravy. But in the long run, it is all about the lifestyle of thrifting, the ability to enjoy all manner of things that I could not otherwise afford to own. It is a lifestyle that has made me wealthy in my own eyes. The vast majority of my possessions are second hand, and I acquired them at bargain prices, the only kind I can afford.

And although this blog tags about "Better Living..." the blog is mostly about the acquiring: the adventures, results and costs of the treasure hunting. The actual "Better Living" goes on behind the scenes most of the time. This post is a break from the usual focus of the blog, a change from "what I got" to "how I'm using it." A peek behind the scenes, to see how things are working out with one of my garage sale treasures.

The featured treasure is a sauce maker I bought on March 17th 2006 for $5:



I bought it the same day we bought our wonderful new refrigerator, so it was probably overshadowed by the magnitude of that purchase. In fact, I bought it at the same sale, where I also bought a sewing machine, two blankets, and a watch. Click here if you want to take a trip down memory lane. It was an estate sale held by a man who was helping to move his parents into assisted living. A happier estate sale than most, which unfortunately, are usually preceeded by tragedy. The fact that I vaguely knew the man holding the sale because his cat had been a regular guest at the Cat House when I'd worked there made the sale a bit more interesting than most as well. His cat was a wonderful critter that I'd always enjoyed caring for, and seeing his owner at the sale brought back a lot of happy memories of the late Jake (the cat).

Anyway, I could tell that the sauce maker had been used at least a couple of times, but it was clean and appeared to be carefully packed away, which I hoped meant that all the parts were included. $5 seemed like a fair price and the sauce maker looked useful, although I hadn't seen one like it before and didn't know anything else about it.
Since I haven't had any sauce ingredients around since March, the sauce maker has been stashed in the crawlspace storage. That changed this week when G + M brought over some apples harvested from trees on their property so I could make some applesauce--and at long last try out the sauce maker.

The verdict? An overwhelming success!

My old way of making applesauce was to core and trim any bad spots from the apples, cook them until soft, and then run them through a food mill much like this one:

A very messy and cumbersome procedure compared to using the sauce maker, I now know.
Skins would quickly build up in the food mill, and like a mask, prevent the apples from being squished through the sieve. Lots of tedious removing of apple skins and too much waste of applesauce clinging to the skins. But the alternative was paring the skins from the apples prior to cooking, a tedious proposition, so I opted to use the food mill, messy as it was. Until today, that is; this appliance has changed everything and made all that hassle and waste a thing of the past. With the sauce maker I just pour the cooked apples into the hopper, use the push to shove them down the chute, turn the crank and voila! Applesauce flows into one bowl, dry skins and debris into the other. It really could not be easier or more efficient!

I am beyond pleased!

This is some smooth, tasty applesauce.
Looking at the box, Joe noticed a price sticker from Ace Hardware for $52.99. He then googled the mfg and learned that they sell it for $59.99. So $5 was indeed a good price.
Reading the instruction booklet that came with the sauce maker I learned that I can buy attachments to increase the scope of jobs it can handle. The standard sieve is the one included with the appliance, it is designed for apples and tomatoes primarily. But they make other variations, including a coarser one designed for pumpkin and potatoes, which sounds useful to me. And they make an even coarser sieve for salsa making that Joe is interested in. A very fine sieve (for berries), and an auger designed specifically for grapes are also available, I doubt that I would have much use for either of those. But the 2 coarser sieves are a definite consideration for future purchase. The mfg website offers them for $12.99 each, with shipping for either or both at a flat $7.50. Before I'd consider that source I will definitely watch eBay for awhile and see if the local Ace (which has a sizable kitchen dept) offers them for sale at a competitive price. $12.99 is a bit pricey (especially x2), but I was very impressed with the sauce maker's ease of use, and am at least considering spending some additional $$ to add to its versatility.
In the meantime, I am definitely enjoying "Better Living Through Garage Sales" in many aspects of my life, with an additional happy instance added today.