Holiday baked goods, treats aplenty at bake sale

11/19/2012

By RACHAEL GRAY

rgray@gctelegram.com

In preparation for the holidays, many are baking and cooking food for families, anticipating Thursday's Thanksgiving feast.

Saturday morning at Garden Valley Church, at the corner of Third and Campbell streets, congregation members and volunteers eased the holiday scramble by offering baked goods and treats during the Peppernut Shoppe and Ten Thousand Villages Market.

The bake sale, in its 28th year, featured pies, cinnamon rolls, bierocks, kolaches, peppernuts, candies, New Year's cookies and handcrafted wares.

The Ten Thousand Villages Market is a fair trade retailer that sells artisan-crafted home decor, personal accessories and gift items from across the globe, according to its website. The market items featured at Saturday's sale were from Hutchinson, church volunteers said.

The event offered candles, jewelry, hand-crafted decor, linens and other unique items.

Rachel Hodson, congregation member, helped organized the annual event. She said numbers may have been slightly down this year, but people were waiting outside before the event began. "It's a great fundraiser for the church," she said.

Hodson said popular items include the peppernuts, bierocks and Mennonite pies.

Shortly before noon Saturday, just a few pies were left.

Dixie Drake, congregation member, made New Year's cookies, which are fritter dough deep fried and frosted. The cookies were popular.

"It's a popular Mennonite food," she said.

Drake's daughter, Kayla, made scones, pies and maple bacon peppernuts.

"It was kind of an experiment," Drake said and laughed.

Drake has been helping out with the event for a number of years.

"You get to hang out with your friends, and it's fun shopping around and eating the different kinds of goods. It's just a great time," she said.

Garden Valley Church has been in Garden City since 1959.