Salem United Church of Christ, 615 Third St., Catasauqua, held its craft fair Nov. 9.

The event is coordinated by Bev Warner who gets vendors to set up tables.

“We can get people into the church, and we are always interested in seeing new vendors. We have good food, the fair is inside, and we meet a lot of locals at these events,” she said.

The craft fair is over when Carol Rarick awards the basket raffle prizes.

Rarick said she crafts the baskets herself. She buys all the components and puts the baskets together.

She had 30 baskets for this year’s fair.

“I could just give the money to the church, or I can do the baskets and they can get more money. I like doing it,” she said.

Rarick has about 100 baskets waiting for the next fair.

“People come here for the baskets. We always have things that are practical and useful,” she said.

You can order your tickets online for the baskets.

Before the fair, the baskets go up on Facebook, so you can see which one you want to choose.

The first items to sell out at the event are the pickled beets. Paula Griffin and Catherine Heil run the pickled beets concession.

“We make them twice a month, and no one else has the same recipe,” Heil said.

The beets usually sell out early.

“We use the recipe that Ruth Barry taught us,” Griffin said.

Barry recently passed away, but she made beets until 2009 and passed on the technique. Beets help sustain the church with an estimation of $20,000 in sales over the years.

If you sign up, you can get on the list to get your beets when the ladies make them.

Salem UCC also has a community lunch the first Monday of the month.

“We try to coordinate the lunches with the other churches in town,” Warner said.

Any leftovers go to Daybreak, in Allentown, along with a health kit that Rarick puts together.