A wee bit of gardening, and popcorn.
Today was a beautiful, sunny day and I found myself with a bad case of spring fever – getting out into the garden was the only way of dealing with that.
I planted out some Jerusalem Artichokes, transplanted my Arctic Beauty kiwis from the back yard onto the arbor in the front, and moved one of my blueberry plants to a more spacious spot.
Later, I headed to a nearby thrift shop to look for some pants for the kids. I found a pair of track pants for Jay to wear to his gymnastics class, and Bee got a pair of jeans and a cute pair of cords.
I wasn’t intending to buy anything else, but what should I spy on the shelf as I’m about to leave, but a popcorn maker of the type I’ve been pining for for years. It just so happens that our hot air popper fell out of the cupboard and broke last week, and this one was $3.99, (a far cry from the $45 or more that they go for new) – how could I resist?
These wonderful popcorn pots have a crank on the handle that turns a little stirring mechanism inside, which keeps the kernels from sticking and helps them pop evenly. I was a little worried that the popcorn would burn because the pot is made of such thin aluminum, but we made a batch this evening and it turns out those fears were totally unfounded. 
The kids loved turning the handle and taking peeks to see if it had started popping, and within just a few minutes we had a pot full of the most delicious popcorn I’ve had in a long time. We were already big fans of this amazing snack food, but I can see this becoming a bit of a problem.I’m having a hard time keeping up with everything lately, so I apologize in advance for not responding to your comments right away. I hope to get caught up soon!
I can’t believe you’re gardening with the heaps of snow we have here. The heavy snow that we’ve had this year has severly damaged one of my trees and I’m eagerly waiting for it to melt a bit so that I can attempt repairs. The popcorn looks fabulous. I’ve often wondered how well those popcorn pots work.
Ahh!! what a good find. Kind of reminds me of the “jiffy pop” stove top popcorns from when I was a kid. I loved watching the aluminum “tent” blow up so that you could see, not just hear, the popcorn actually doing something. How fun!
We have one of those! We’ve had it for about 3 years and use it weekly. I like to put nutritional yeast on mine while the kids and dh love tons of butter.(which is why we have to limit it to weekly, they like to use a stick of butter per batch)We got ours at a thrift store also.
Oops I forgot to mention that I contacted the manufacturer and they sent me the instruction manual for it for free.
What a find! I’ve been looking for a used one of these also. A girlfriend of mine had one, and we used to put bonito flakes or furakaki on it. Yummy! You can find bonito & furakaki at Asian grocery stores.
Enjoy your popcorn! Looks delicious.
I’m thinking that you have awesome second-hand store(s) near you! PS – don’t worry about not responding to comments. Busy times so don’t worry t’all.
I saw a popcorn popper similar to this on the sale rack at Williams Sonoma and I did NOT buy it. Foolish, perhaps….
wow love the popper! It is very nice.
“Arctic Beauty kiwis” looks interesting.I never before heard about this.
Enjoy your popcorn.My kids like popcorn too.
Greetings,Steffi
I have one too! $2.99 at the local goodwill. I’ve been using it for about a year and a half now and love it. If it ever dies, I’ll pay full price for one.
Damn, that’s what I was going to have my Mother bring up when she came to visit; the old popcorn popper. I have an antique one from my Grandfather’s house. They are way cool.
Wow, it sounds like popcorn makers are a popular thing to buy second hand (hopefully that means you’ll find one soon, Eva)!
Thanks for the tip about the manual, Chelee.
Sorry to hear about your tree, Carla. My rhodo has suffered this year as well.