Birding with Jerry Hall: Holiday catalogues already coming in droves

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Beemans chewing gum, invented in 1898, was introduced as a digestive aid.
Collin Street Farms in Costa Rica grows all the pineapples used in the bakery's famous fruit cakes.

October 31, 2009

Merchandising mail offers everything you didn’t know you needed

By Jerry Hall The San Marcos Record Sat Oct 31, 2009, 11:53 AM CDT

My goodness at the Christmas catalogues! The hard-working postal people need heavy-duty haulers this time of year to deliver what must be tons of merry merchandising mail.

I especially enjoy the Vermont Country Store catalogue. It has 87 pages crammed with stuff I never knew I needed, but am now convinced I do. Things like private reserve maple syrup — “the very best maple syrup of the 2009 sugaring season, more delicately flavored than any other syrup we’ve tasted.” I didn’t know the sugaring season for this year had already arrived — but it must have been a profitable one because this syrup sells for $24.95 for 12.7 ounces.

As “purveyors of the practical and hard-to-find,” the Vermont catalogue also offers several long-forgotten candy brands — Zagnut, Clark, Mallo Cup and Sky Bar. Remember any of those?

And the classic chewing gums — Black Jack, a black licorice favorite since 1884; Beemans, invented in 1898 to ease heartburn owing to the pepsin, a digestive aid; and Clove gum, a valued breath freshener since Prohibition. I’ve chewed them all and would love to smack them again. Of course, I paid a nickel a pack back then but the cost today is about a buck a pack, plus postage.

Some items I don’t care to order, but just reading about them takes me back in time. I thought many of these products had disappeared and am surprised they are still available. For example, Evening in Paris, probably the first perfume I ever heard of. At one time in the early 1950s, it was called “the fragrance more women wear than any other in the world.” But by 1969, it had vanished from our shores. Somehow, the Vermont store tracked down a supply. It still comes in the original 1.6 ounce cobalt spray bottle and costs $50.

One’s health can also be improved via this catalogue. Just consider organic elderberry extract, which “helps build up immunity to colds and viruses” and is “made at a small family-owned Vermont apiary using organic ingredients, including elderberry, raw honey, and Echinacea root.” I’m not sure what an Echinacea root is, but the extract contains 2-3 percent grain alcohol, so I figure a swig or two will make you feel better in a hurry.

You don’t need a copy of the Vermont Country Store catalogue to buy these and other interesting products — such as wood-smoked herring, pinwale corduroy jumpers and wooden Fuller brushes with natural boar bristles – just visit their web site, vermontcountrystore.com and shop 24 hours a day. Even if you don’t buy, it’s fun to browse their eclectic collection.

Another catalogue that won me over came from Collin Street Bakery, a Corsicana institution since 1896. I love their cakes — especially the pineapple-pecan. It’s been a favorite of mine ever since I visited the Costa Rican farm where they grow their pineapples – sweetest pineapples I ever tasted.

If you’d like to give this distinguished bakery a try, visit collinstreet.com. They sell millions of their Deluxe Fruitcake every year so they must be doing something right.

Finally, if you want to skip catalogues and make a gift with your own hands, just e-mail me, jdothall@verizon.net, and ask for my mother-in-law’s prize-winning fruit cake recipe. I think it is palate-pleasing perfection.

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