82-Lancaster Fanning, Saturday, August 16,1986
August Is A Month For Harvesting And Presenting Gordon Bounty
BY SALLY BAIR
Lancaster County Correspondent
LANCASTER - August is the
month when many homemakers
turn serious thoughts to processing
and preserving the harvests of
their gardens and orchards for
enjoyment in the upcoming winter
months. For Esther Sangrey,
however, thoughts of preserving
are with her even before she plants
her garden.
Growing and preserving fruits
and vegetables is almost second
nature for Esther, who remembers
playing house as a small girl and
making sure her “houses” had
shelves to hold her jars of canned
goods. This was a natural reaction
to watching and helping her
mother can on their Conestoga
Center farm.
The wife of E. Elvin Sangrey,
Esther now lives in rural Pequea
Township and plants a large
garden on their half-acre lot. It
was after her marriage that she
began canning in earnest for her
family, which eventually included
two daughters.
About 10 years ago, Esther
added a new dimension to her
canning by deciding to take her
finished products to local fairs for
competition. She said she
always enjoyed going to the fairs
and looking at the canned goods,
often thinking to herself that she
had things of equal quality at
home.
Time has proven her right, as
she continues to collect dozens of
ribbons at each of the four fairs at
which she exhibits: Lampeter,
New Holland, Solanco and
Manheim. Now, entering in the
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jge garden to supply the produce she
likes to preserve, but she also enjoys having fresh flowers and
will display some of those at the fair if the weather
cooperates. She admits that once harvest begins, all hoeing
and weeding stop for her.
competition has become a
tradition, although Esther says
with a laugh, “Each year I say this
is the last year I will enter.”
That thought surfaces when she
is gathering her vegetables, baked
goods and canned food to take to
the fair. Esther says, “It’s the
baked goods that foul me up in the
end.” She adds, “My car is full
when I go.” She likes to take cakes,
pies and cookies, and chooses at
least 25 different varieties of
canned goods, including fruits,
vegetables and relishes. An ad
ditional 10 jars go along to be used
in the “display” category.
Esther says, “As the season goes
on, the fair is in the back of my
mind.” It starts with planting,
when she choses her favorite
varieties, and continues as she
harvests them. She says the
abundance of moisture has been
great for the crops, but still thinks
she may not have a lot of fresh
vegetables to show because so
many are maturing ahead of
schedule. The corn which she
planted especially for the fair
season will be over long before the
first fair opens.
In the canning process, Esther
admits that these products which
are headed for the fair receive
special attention. Only the best and
the most uniform are selected, and
she picks her produce early in the
morning. “I like to get right at it,”
she remarks. Nevertheless, she
often finds herself canning late at
night, just to get all the work done.
The actual preparation is done
largely in her basement kitchen,
although sometimes both kitchens
are pressed into use.
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Although most of her fair
husband, Elvin, made her this
Esther adds, “I go directly to the
orchard to pick my fruit. That way
I know exactly what is in the
basket.” Her favorite peach
varieties for canning are Red
Haven and Glo Haven
She enjoys the fun of the com
petition and notes, “Each year I do
better at the fairs.” She attributes
her better showing to “learning
what the judges are looking for.”
To help her remember over the ■
years, Esther says, “I keep a
notebook to see what I do. I am
finding that I do better in canned
vegetables.”
She adds, “Lampeter is my best
fair.” In fact, she said she likes the
Lampeter Fair because it is the
“best old time fair.” She has found
that many people travel to several
fairs as she does, and she has made
friends from around the county.
With the large amount of food
she displays, Esther often comes
home with many, many ribbons
which she stores carefully in shoe
boxes in the attic. “When I retire, I
am going to make them mto a
quilt,” she says with a laugh.
Last year she received a special
award for the “Outstanding En
try” at the Solanco Fair, a special
surprise for her.
Esther continues to enjoy
comparing her produce with other
displays at the various fairs and
expresses a mild interest in can
ning some of the more unusual
items like spinach and red beet
tops. However, she says, “I stick to
things I’m going to use or give
away.” She said she often gives
her pnze-winning fruit as a hostess
or Christmas gift.
In addition to the cannmg done
for fairs, Esther prepares about
200 quarts of fruits for her family’s
use. Usually about 100 quarts of
that will be peaches, something
her husband is particularly fond of.
She stores her canned goods in the
cold cellar they built for that
purpose. She said she usually
freezes most of her vegetables, but
says that when her daughters visit
they leave with bags of vegetables.
Her days are not just filled with
canning food, though it could be
understandable to think so. At
least three days a week she does
cleaning for others, and in the last
10 years she has developed a
business of cooking in other
people's homes. She also serves as
cook at the family church,
Southern Lancaster Grace
Brethren Church, where she and
her husband serve as deacon and
deaconess.
She says, “I like cooking, and I
enjoy working in other people’s
kitchens, once you get the feel of
it.” She said she has learned to
search for what she needs if it is
not immediately evident. And
although she usuail.v uses recipes
ribbons get stored in shoe boxes in the attic, Esther's
cardboard stand to display one year’s earnings.
Pickles are just one of many relishes Esther likes to prepare
in addition to canning fruit. Here she prepares a batch of
Crisp Banquet Pickles.
suggested by the hostess, she
sometimes needs to make
something on her own. For those
times she says, “I always carry a
pack of recipes in my handbag.”
She likes trying new recipes and
often meters to her own wide
variety of cookbooks. She also likes
to look at and use cookbooks where
she is preparing meals. And she
takes away any mystery about her
ability as a cook by saying, “If you
can read, you can cook.”
Nevertheless, she has a special
touch in the kitchen which has
people requesting her skills. She
says her venture into cooking for
others began “by accident,” but
now she prepares anything from
small wedding receptions to
This array of canned goods is a small representation of the
25 different varieties she will gather to display at local fairs in
the fall. Each is carefully packed in wide-mouthed jars and
awaits the judge’s inspection.
dinners for small groups.
Another sideline for Esther is
making wedding cakes. After
taking a course in cake decorating
from Willow Street Vo-Tech
School, she began making cakes.
Her first was for a family wedding,
but her success has been so great
that she now makes about three a
month. She said April and May are
becoming extremely busy months
for weddings.
To help prospective customers
choose which wedding cake is
perfect for their special occasion,
Esther keeps pictures of all the
cakes she’s ever made. All of her
cakes are made from scratch, and
she will make any flavor the
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