Next to the Last

For the past many years, the first weekend in October has meant a trip to Ritzville, Washington, to help out at the Mennonite Country Auction. Our friends, TS and Holly, own Stampede Packing Company here in Kalispell. One of their products is the Redneck line of sausage. We eat a lot of Redneck Sausage here at Chez Schuster-Szabo despite raising our own pigs, because it is just that good.

TS and Holly make a special applewood smoked sausage to sell at the Mennonite Country Auction along with slab bacon and smoked ham. People line up two hours ahead to be able to purchase these products at the sale. Elaine and I run the cash registers. It’s a mad rush for about an hour until we sell out.

We were set to leave around noon on Friday for the drive to Spokane, where I had reserved a hotel room for two nights. Ritzville is 50 miles west of Spokane and Menno Mennonite—the site of the sale—is another 20 miles west of Ritzville. Just before we were to leave, I got a call from another member of our church who works for TS and also helps out at the sale. There was a load of cheese and a load of sausage to go out to Ritzville. I said I would take the cheese, so after picking up Elaine, we swung by the plant to load the cheese up into the back of the Jeep. Elaine and I were on the road by 1 pm.

I dropped Elaine off at the hotel in Spokane so she could get some work done and continued out to Ritzville. It was a beautiful evening and still quite warm for October. I delivered the cheese and drove back to Spokane as the sun was setting.

On Saturday morning, Elaine and I headed back out to the church, which is a literal oasis in the middle of miles and miles and miles of potato fields. The grounds were abuzz with activity. We walked around, visited with friends, and at 10 am, we were in place and ready to sell bacon, ham, and sausage.

Part of the opening announcements included the sad news that next year will be the 50th—and the last—Mennonite Country Auction. As with so many great events, the volunteer organizers are old and tired and no young people are stepping up to take over. It’s a shame, because this auction typically nets over $100,000 each year for Mennonite Central Committee.

Elaine and were hungry after manning those cash registers. She had a bowl of groundnut stew for lunch and I had a German sausage on a stick with sauerkraut. You would think I have had enough sauerkraut this week but no sir! For dessert, we shared some New Year’s cookies, which are balls of dough fried in lard and dusted with sugar. We watched the quilt auction for a bit until Elaine’s sister, Alice, and her family arrived from Seattle. They had driven out to take Elaine back with them for a visit.

I was too engaged to take pictures (sorry, Margaret) so I don’t have any of the quilts. My sense is that the quilts sold well this year, although there were fewer than there used to be. I always get a kick out of the fact that someone makes and donates poppyseed rolls—kolache—that sell for over $1000 apiece. I am going to try to make and donate a quilt to next year’s sale. We’ll see if I can make that happen.

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I spent Saturday night in Spokane and drove home yesterday morning. After unpacking and doing a few loads of laundry, I traced the back and sleeve pattern pieces for the On Repeat top and went stash diving for fabric. I am going to use a remnant of lightweight black linen that I got at Pacific Fabrics, which is just large enough.

I have a podcast episode to edit this morning and paperwork to wrangle. Tomorrow, I am teaching a serger mastery class in Missoula, and on Wednesday, I have to start the salsa. After the salsa is done, I will devote myself to sewing for a while. It has been too long.