So I'm a huge fan of garage sales, and today I was out looking around and was striking out every place I stopped. I was at my last stop for the day and started finding some really good stuff, cook books, pans, ect ect then something got my eye. Two boxes of probably 600 recipe cards filled out for $5.....

They were in a zip lock bag so I couldn't really look at them so I asked the lady working what the deal was. Turns out they were cleaning out the house of an 85 year old lady who they knew and found them. Most of her stuff was auctioned of and they were just selling what was left in a garage sale ( I found this kind of sad, wouldn't she have family who would want this stuff?) . Turns out this lady was known for her baking, they found tubs of ribbons from various things she had won.

When I got home I started going through some of them and there are tons of recipes for icings, cakes, filling, cookies, a few for fondants, breads, and some other stuff mixed in. From a few recipes that are clipped from news papers I think they date back to the 1940's and 50's.

Sorry this is so long, I just feel like I have struck gold with these recipes and I was so excited to tell someone who would understand! I can't wait to try them and make her proud with a few!

Ash

What a nice story Ash! I used to love going to garage and estate sales when I used to live in San Francisco. I would love to be able to do that again.

What a treasure!! I am a sucker for that kind of thing.....if you ever get the time you should put them in a book (you know, one of those fund raiser kind of things!) I would buy one of them.

I have some of the recipes of a much loved restaurant that used to be here in our town. My DH and I are friends with the person who bought the building, and when they went through it, there was a box of recipes - and they just gave them to me. (along with some very cool antique crocks too) I love having them!

Congrats on your find!!

Hey Ash and Loucinda, I'm from Ohio too. How cool is that. Ash your story brought a tear to my eye. I think it's lovely that that little old ladies recipes will be carried on thanks to you. Just think, if you wouldn't have bought them they probably just would have been thrown away. I wonder if you could have them published in here name. OMG... that would be so awesome.

update...I Bought a photo album to store them in so nothing happened to them. I THOUGHT I would start with a 400 picture album. when it was full I had only made it through 1/3 of the first box....there are way more than I thought!

Cool story!! I'd have bought the box of ribbons, too, to award myself with when I made something really good

It is not expensive to have a recipe book made. I was on a "committee" at church to compile a recipe book. We had it published for a lot less than you would think. if you want the info, please pm me.

Congratulations on your wonderful find.

I always remember my mom cooking from this huge green cookbook the whole time I was growing up. When she passed on, I got the cookbook. The poor thing... is was so worn out. All falling apart. My DH tried to make copies of the pages that were falling out to put in a notebook for me, so I could use the notebook and preserve the book. Don't you know, unbelieveably, I found that very same book in tip top shape at a garage sale. It didn't look like it had ever been used. Needless to say, this made my DH happy and me ecstatic. I got it for $2.00. What a steal. I love garage sales. My husband and I will be driving down the road going somewhere and see a sign and we'll both look at each other. Yeah, we got time. HA! We are garage saling fools.

I love yard sales. What a great find. Start baking.