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I have not been very good about keeping up here because I am posting more on Facebook. Please check out my candy information there. Clear Toy Candy / Thos. Mills & Bros.

Visitors treated to 18th-century candy lesson at historic Readington farmstead

I found this great article on the net on Kimberly Costa and her treats from the 18th-century. She did a talk at the Readington farmstead, Stanton, NJ. There are wonderful photos so follow the link to see them and to learn more about her 18th-century sweets. Read the article

Daniel Boone Homestead, Birdsboro, PA

This past weekend I took a Seasonal Cooking Class at the Daniel Boone Homestead in Birdsboro, PA. Deb Peterson of Deborah Peterson's Pantry taught the class. We prepared a traditional spring meal that included lamb in a pie, a fricassee of eggs, spinach, and we were to make curd fritters.

This is the tallow we used to make the crust for the lamb pie.

Here is the crust being made.

These are the dried grapes, raisins, that had to be seeded for the pie.

Deb Peterson with the lamb pie getting ready for the fire.

Lamb meat pie

Pie in the fire

Spinach in a tin going into the hot water to cook.

Lamb pie finished

Here are the eggs... turkey and chicken

The boiled eggs, turkey eggs on the left and and chicken on the right.

Eggs getting their cream sauce to complete the fricassee of eggs. They were yummy!

Clear Toy Candy & Equipment Exibit

I have been colleting clear toy candy molds for many years now. I jumped at the opportunity to exhibit part of my collection at The Pennypacker Mills historic site in Schwenksville, PA. The exhibit opened April 1, 2009 and will run for 6 months.

Here are a few images from exhibit.

In this case are the molds for the bust of President McKinley (top left back), bust of President Taft (middle), Peacock (front), Single violin (middle right), Pocket watch (back right).

This case has the largest mold made by the Thomas Mills & Brothers company. It is the train mold in the front right and it weights 29 pounds. This mold came from Knickerbocker's Ice cream and Candy Co in Paterson, NJ. You can see the finished train in green candy in the top of the case.

Here are some other examples of molds and made clear toy candy. Many of these mold were made by the Thomas Mills & Brothers company in Philadelphia PA.


This is a starch board used to make gummy candies, like gumdrops and orange slices. You can see the metal and wood molds that were used to make the forms in the corn starch.

There are examples of the candy machines. The one on the left was used to make Humbugs and the one on the right was for cutting taffy. These machines were made by the Thomas Mills & Brothers company.