For the third year in a row Miss Sassy and I have been fortunate enough to be invited to the Byrd applebutter extraveganza near Covington Ohio.This is great stuff. The farm has been in the family one way or another since 1812 and has a cool sign hanging on the barn(see picture below for actual appearance).
The annual apple butter making has been going on here for a long long time, and this family of knows their applebutter.
If you are invited to this deal you have to spend time stirring the kettle . The stirring has to be constsnt from about 6 in the morning til somewhere around 6 in the evening. A ton of apples get dumped in the kettle as the day goes by and there is a lot of boiling and evaporating evaporating happening until the only thing left is the best applebutter that I have ever tasted.
I am not sure but I believe that even the wood used for fire is special .
The stirring is done with a wooden stirrer and there are a bunch of silver dollars in the kettle that helps keep the apple stuff from sticking to the edges of the kettle.
This is Carrie Drees looking cute (as per usual) standing by the copper kettle as it is being stirred. Carrie is probably the 5th or 6th generation of apple butter makers and she brought her baby Nathan aka the cutest kid in the world to be part of thye action. Nate is probably 3 years awy from being able to take his turn at stirring.
This is a pic of how the farm looks today--much like the sign on the barn. The farm borders the Stillwater River and has a neat spring between the barn and the river.
The Byrds must be some wonderful people, maybe someday you can introduce me. It's not surprising that Nathan is the cutest kid in the world having such a pretty mother. Although I believe his name is Nathaniel.
ReplyDeleteActually I am not sure that Byrd is these people's real names --they are sort of shifty folks and never really look you directly in the eye when talking to you
ReplyDeleteit is just a suspicion on my part but I believe there is a good chance most if not all are in the federal witness protection program
either that or they may be Amish because a lot of the men and a few of the women have beards
but I will introduce you if you want
as for my man Nathaniel aka Nathony aka cutest kid in the world--he looks just like his dad--it is unclear who mother might be
First, take another look at the photo with Carrie and the copper kettle, that is Nathaniel's mother on the left.
ReplyDeleteSecond, you best be careful what you say about those Byrd people. I heard tell that one year someone lied about how nice they were and actually called them "shifty" and being in the federal witness protection plan. He hasn't been heard from since and the apple butter that year didn't have quite the same flavor...
Here is the webpage about Byrd Apple Butter
ReplyDeletehttp://userpages.bright.net/~waynic/byrd_tradition.htm
In my opinion, the cutest kid in the world, takes after his grandfather.
Question for you Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteWhich parts?