Apple butter is a thing around here. It is not just cooked apples and spices in a jar. Apple butter is an event. A day when people sit around a cooking kettle all day and then line up to fill sterilized jars. There is food and drinks and firewood. I know of three “apple butter cooks” within a five-mile radius of each other within a three-week time-span. And we’ve only lived in the area five years! So I would venture a guess there are many more apple butter cooks going down that we don’t even know about between September and October. Today we attended one at a friend’s house. Next week, our next door neighbor is having one.

Today, when I snapped some shots of the kettle cooking one of the old timers said to me, “Hey! Don’t be sharing this secret recipe.” I laughed and said “I’m taking notes!” Well, I sort of am. I think one big secret is that everyone takes a turn stirring the kettle.

Well maybe not everyone took a turn. The “Spy” was happy to check out the sights beyond the kettle:

When I stirred the kettle, someone remarked that I needed a beer in my left hand, while I stirred with my right hand. To get the balance right. Hahahaaha. The recipe? The one from today involved four bushels of apples (peeled, cored and sliced), spices, spices in a spice bag and about 7 hours in a cast iron pot over a wood fire. Finally, sterilizing jars and lids and then a flurry of filling:

Dexie (our golden retriever puppy) had fun meeting a big chocolate lab, a boxer-mix and my neighbor’s three Jack Russell terriers.

Baby’s favorite are the chickens:

When the cops showed up I thought it might be time to call it a night.

So I enjoyed a few more sights: