It's been a really busy summer...

We'll be getting some photos up soon!

Everyone have a safe and beautiful Labor Day~

Labor Day Holiday History: Once upon a time not so long ago we had jobs and made stuff in America and it was honorable to work (yes even manually) and workers were respected, appreciated, and one could be proud to be a productive worker in the United States of America. The 3 day weekend last hurrah of the summer we call Labor Day Weekend was a celebration of work and the workforce.

The holiday unofficially began on September 5, 1882 when 10,000 workers took an unpaid day-off to honor the labor force of America and marched from city hall to Union Square in New York City, it was the first-ever Labor Day parade. Participants, as well as onlookers could vocalize issues they had with employers. As years passed, more states began to hold these parades, but Congress would not legalize the holiday until 12 years later when President Grover Cleveland was forced to sign the holiday into law as an election-year compromise with labor. Although Labor Day began as a celebration of the American workers, the labor movement and its achievements, it additionally has come to be celebrated as the end of summer vacations, the last, long summer weekend before autumn, a day to picnic and barbecue and a signal that is time to go back to school for the students and a precursor to the harvest season for agriculture.

Buttercups, Spearworts, Water Crowfoots, Oh my!

Earth laughs in flowers. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Hamatreya"

History 101

Meakin Staffordshire Fair Winds Brown - $245 SOLD
SERVICE FOR 8: dinner, salad, bread & cereal bowl
plus vegetable bowl & platter - 53 pieces (list for $385)

In early 1973, Grand Union commissioned a special set of dinnerware. It was to be the most extensive and exciting collection of Staffordshire glazed ironstone since 1860. It was to be authentic in every detail . . . in every step of its manufacture. And it could only be made by the potters of Staffordshire.

The results exceeded even our expectations. From the original copper etchings, created exclusively for this collection . . . to the absolutely authentic Wild Rose border . . . (created circa 1784) . . . is dinnerware that recreates an age and an art thought long gone.

It took the potters of Staffordshire to create FAIR WINDS PATTERN. It took a tradition of craftsmanship, passed from generation to generation, to duplicate each step on the original process. And it took Grand Union to bring you in all its glory and loveliness . . . to use, to treasure, to pass on to future generations . . .

Take home a piece of American History exclusively at Grand Union . . . Names and places that recreate and bring alive a history and a heritage two centuries old. Now, through special arrangement, Grand Union brings you an opportunity that may never be repeated. A chance to own, enjoy and treasure a complete set of matchless English dinnerware . . . depicting in fourteen original engravings the scenes, the events, the people that gave birth to these United States.

Every piece is unique . . . a true collector's item . . . worthy of the finest museums, private collections . . . and your dinner table.

The FAIR WINDS pattern was manufactured 1975-1981 for the Grand Union Supermarkets, as a promotion celebrating the nation's bicentennial .

Please Pass the Potato Salad

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!

Fun facts about Independence Day

God bless those who are still on foreign soil.
Our prayers are with you and your family...

Betsy of Ross available in our shop!