The 1974 Winter Edition of the Foxfire Magazine contains a compilation of newspaper articles written by Harvey Miller. At the time of the magazine’s publication Miller’s weekly column had been around for sixty years and was till being published in the Tri-County News located in Spruce Pine, North Carolina.
1956
There is an abundance of apples on Pigeon Roost and that means plenty of apple butter too.
When the first crop of apples became ripe the latter part of July, which was the early harvest variety, apple butter making began and will continue until cold weather starts.
But more apple butter is made the month of August than at any other time, probably on account of that it is the time when horse apples and jimbos are ripe, the varieties that have long been a favorite to make good delicious apple butter out of and there is no need to add any flavor to it.
Last season, the apple crop was a complete failure and when this is the case, not any apples that grow at other places are ever purchased and brought here to make apple butter out of them. So there would be no apple butter made.
Almost all the farmers have an apple orchard and of course, they let their neighbors have apples who are not so blessed. All the families make apple butter for their own use only, none is ever sold. Sometimes two neighbors go in together and make a sharing run that they divide into parts.
With this year’s bumper crop of apples, some families probably will make enough apple butter for a two year supply. Apple butter, when properly made, has been found to keep fit to eat for many years.
However, apple butter making is no longer made on the scale of the old fashioned way, which did take a longer time to make and farmers no longer make cane molasses which was used in sweetening it.
The process of the old way was an all day and far into the night affair in just stirring the butter, for more fresh apples would be added until the brass kettle would be brimful of cooked apples. All lumps had to be cooked out of the apples before they would put in the sweetening.
It is all different now. The apples are peeled and prepared and placed in the brass kettle and then sweetened down with sugar, and left to stay overnight. Early the next morning the cooking and stirring begins and the apple butter is pronounced done in two or three hours time.
Thick apple butter is still made. We ourselves were the sampler of some the other day that had to be cut out of the crock with a knife.
The old timey brass kettles are still in perfect condition and are being used by someone almost every day now, as they are borrowed from the owners by just one and another.
Mrs. Martha Bennett has been a patient for the last two weeks in the Grace Hospital at Banner Elk.
A few weeks ago, Harvey J. Miller of Pigeon Roost saw a hawk flying over his home in the Jake Hollow with a steel trap attached to his leg.
When W.M. Maine of 405 Magnolia Avenue, Johnson City learned of this, he wondered if the hawk was carrying a steel trap that he had set at his home to catch a bird or varmint that had been bothering his chickens. He thought that his steel trap had disappeared about the same time Miller saw the hawk.
It has also been learned that Elmer Johnson who lives about five miles from Pigeon Roost at the Bailey Settlement section near Poplar caught a hawk about the time Miller saw the hawk and it also had a steel trap attached to its leg. Now there is some wonder – did this hawk get in the trap in Johnson City? Johnson has the trap on display at his home.
9/6/56
So many things I like about this peek into the old days of Pigeon Roost.
I’ve never made apple butter the old timey way outside over a fire but I sure would like to be part of the process someday.
The early harvest apples he mentions are really good. The Folk School’s orchard has several trees and in the past I was blessed to get to put some of them up.
I like the language: make a sharing run that they divide into parts; to keep fit to eat; brimful of cooked apples; by just one and another.
I’ve never seen apple butter thick enough to cut with a knife but I sure would like to try it.
The hawk story is interesting. The trap didn’t seem to impede the health of the hawk as it flew to and fro. Google maps says the distance between Pigeon Roost and Johnson City is about 30 miles. A hawk could easily handle that distance so it might have been W.M.’s trap.
Jump over to the Foxfire website and poke around. They are still publishing the magazine and those wonderful Foxfire Books too!
Tipper
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I make my apple butter thick enough for a spoon to stand up in it when it’s hot without falling over. I like to use sweet meller apples so I don’t have to add a sweetener.
I’ve never been a fan of apple butter but sure like those fried apple pies. Our Senior Classics from church takes a yearly day trip to WNC Farmers Market in Asheville. Good choice of apples and the restaurant is amazing! Just a fun day!! I’m sure you NC people have been there!
Have you tried real homemade apple butter?
My grandmother made wonderful apple butter. I love the stuff on a hot homemade buttered biscuit. Around here, horse apples are what horses leave on the ground.
Every other year, I have friends who celebrate their anniversary by having an apple butter gathering. Everyone brings a potluck dish and a lawn chair. There’s a big old fashioned copper pot set on the fire and everyone who takes a turn at stirring with the long paddle gets to take home a jar of the apple butter. It’s a really fun time, with lots of good people and even some pickin’ and grinnin’.
Wow Kim! That sounds so fun
My grandmother made the kind that you had to cut out of the jar; it was the best!
Homemade apple butter made the old-fashioned way is the best. I bought a jar of store-brand last week and can not eat it. It tasted terrible and leaves an aftertaste similar to what I think rusty metal would taste like. It’s been a long time since I heard someone say on account of. My parents would have said on count of.
It is apple picking time and all the preserving that goes along with it. Apple butter, apple juice, apple jelly, caramel or candy apples, apple pies and just enjoying eating a good fresh apple.
When we lived in Cleveland County, NC there were soy bean fields near us. When the beans were harvested the huge field rats would move to a vacant overgrown lot beside us. They would steal our dog’s food and some once burrowed under our house. I bought some huge rat traps and caught several but one morning one of the traps was missing. We had a pair of red tail hawks in the area so I assume one of them saw a rat in the trap and carried both away. I had them staked down with a small wire attached to a wooden stake. Trap, wire and stake were all gone.
A friend’s account of apple butter-making in Virginia many years ago confirmed that it was indeed a social affair. The work was shared, as was the product. (I’m thinking of the story of the little red hen.) As I recall, this was an annual event, maybe sponsored by a church. Some of the apple butter was sold.
I listened to the excerpt oral history interview of Beulah Perry and looked around the website. Very informative and interesting. I’ll check it out more closely later.
I remember when I was very small, three or four years old in the early 1950’a watching my mother and Mamaw make apple butter in a huge tub over a fire in our back yard in eastern KY. I remember seeing many jars of the dark brown treasure sitting on a table in the kitchen. I don’t remember where they got the apples or much more, but I remember eating the apple butter. It was so tasty. I liked it on biscuits and loved it on stack cakes. I remember seeing apples drying outside and beans hanging up to dry on the porch after Mamaw and mom strung them together. As far as hawks, we have them here in southern Virginia and watch them from our living room window attack and either eat their prey or carry it off in the air such as mice, squirrels and snakes.
I note he refers to “horse apples” as well as “jimbos”. I have heard of horse apples pretty much my whole life but never have heard how to identify them. I very much suspect a lot of different kinds of apples have been, and still are in some places, called “horse apples”. My Grandma had a tree we all called a horse apple tree. They were good apples. If memory serves, they were mostly red but had light and dark streaks of red. I think maybe part of the art of good apple butter might be to mix two or more kinds of apples in secret proportions (and spices likewise?) but that is just a guess on my part. We bought some Ginger Gold and Jonagold the other day and started me wondering if there were particularly good mixes of apples for pies, the table, etc. If so, would also relate to drying each kind. I have posted here before that my all-time favorite apple is Stayman Winesap. I bought some at Carver’s Orchard in Cosby, TN last September. I was surprised to find them as they usually aren’t seen until October. Not faulting Carver’s (I’d recommend folks go there), but they just did not make the flavor of those picked later. So, apple flavor depends in part on being picked at just the right time.
Ron, I wrote about “horse apples” in my comment yesterday about fried apple pies and the apples only being used to dry or make jelly. These apples were smaller green unsweet hard apples similar to a Granny Smith. I guess they also had their fair share of worms since the tree was never sprayed. I guess Mother just cut around any worm or worm hole. I hope she didn’t them in the pot to have some extra meat!
Ron- when you went to Carvers did you try their chicken and dumplings?? Very good!
The picture of that pot of apple butter making my mouth water this morning. This was a great article thank you for sharing it here. I agree with you on your comments that stood out to you. I was wondering what are horse apples and jimbos, I have never heard of them. And that the community at large might read and know the person who has been in the hospital and people would actually visit people at home even and it not be a hardship or imposition to do so or work together for something like the apple butter and share the bounty. I miss those days; my community does not do this.
This was my favorite news from Pigeon Roost yet. It’s sad to me how different most of today’s reporting is.
My family never made or ate apple butter. Nowadays if someone tried to catch or harm a hawk they would be in more trouble than they would be for killing somebody. It is ok for the hawk to kill your chickens or other things. How do I know, a neighborhood man got caught with setting a steel trap on top of a tall post trying to catch a hawk that was killing his free range chickens. Birds of prey are Federally protected.
Didn’t realize making apple butter was such a long process. I can see why folks may go in together and make a “sharing run”. I’ve never heard that phrase before but it’s a beautiful expression neighbor helping neighbor. something we could use more of in this world.
Though I do not recall my mother making apple butter, my grandmother did, and I remember her copper kettle and have seen her recipe–apples, water, and cinnamon. I don’t know what kind of apples she used but were likely from her trees. Michigan is one of the top apple producers in the U.S., and local apple butters are available to purchase. My mother and father loved apple butter though I was never a fan myself. I, too, love the Foxfire books.
I love apple butter. Last October, while on a little retreat with my family, hubby and his brother-in-laws went to a little apple butter festival. They brought us back several pints of the yummy stuff. My hubby’s Grandmother made apple butter when he was a kid. They did it the long, old-fashioned way…stirring in a huge kettle all day long. We still have her apple butter kettle.