Blue Ridge Country September/October 2021 - 88
SINGING IN THE GARDEN
Apple Days
Text and art by GINNY NEIL
W
hen every ditch is outlined with goldenrod
and apple trees yield their fruit to a
touch, then it's time for our family's annual
Apple Day.
Wood is stacked and the cider press
and copper kettle have been scoured
clean. There are dishes of apple pandowdy,
apple fritters, apple cake, apple bread, apple sauce
and apple pie lining the tables in the shed. Conversation
rises in steamy puffs as we wait for the morning's work
to begin.
When the fire burns down to coals, we place the stove
around it and seat the copper kettle. Then we throw in a
few new pennies and dump in the apple sauce. We hope
to take the apple butter off by noon, but we know it
has a mind of its own. We'll just have to wait and
see.
Twenty years ago, we made our apple butter
from snits (peeled and sliced apples), but
we have had good results using large cans
of applesauce instead, and the amount
of work is reduced to something we can
88 BLUERIDGECOUNTRY.COM
handle without quitting our day jobs. Our fore-mothers,
who peeled and snitted six bushels of apples for every
kettle, were certainly made of sterner stuff.
I pull out the recipe that I copied when my motherin-law
taught us all she knew about making apple butter.
It's not a recipe in the ordinary sense of the word,
but rather a list of proportions and things to look for
as the apples cook down. The list is splattered and torn
and getting harder and harder to read. The instructions
for how much sugar and cinnamon to use per gallon of
cooked apples were derived after years of tasting.
Apple butter should be neither as thick as peanut
butter nor as thin as applesauce. So, there's a test involving
a plate and a spoon that lets us know when it is time
to take it off the heat. It will thicken as it cools, so the
spoon test is crucial to success.
While everyone is taking turns swirling the paddle
through the kettle, we set up the cider press.
The apples are washed and dropped in the
hopper. Just like at an ice-cream social,
everyone takes turns with the handle,
and the apples tumble down
The best way to pick apples is with a
glass of last year's cider in your belly.
-Unknown
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Blue Ridge Country September/October 2021
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Blue Ridge Country September/October 2021
Blue Ridge Country September/October 2021 - Cover1
Blue Ridge Country September/October 2021 - Cover2
Blue Ridge Country September/October 2021 - 3
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Blue Ridge Country September/October 2021 - Cover3
Blue Ridge Country September/October 2021 - Cover4
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