Do you like apple butter? Did you ever wonder how your grandparents and their grandparents made apple butter? Edgewood Presbyterian Church has been making apple butter, the old fashioned way, for over 40 years. This tradition has been passed from generation to generation of Edgewood members and friends, and continues to be an annual event. The apple butter is sold in quarts and pints at the annual Art and Craft Show, which the church sponsors the second weekend in October at the State Fair Event Center. Due to the demand of the aromatic sweet toast and biscuit topper, Edgewood has increased the amount of apple butter made to four kettles each year for the past several years.
The congregation at Edgewood invites you to join us for making apple butter over an open fire on Thursday, Sept. 19 and Saturday, Sept. 28. Apple butter making will begin at 6 a.m. at the church, located at the intersection of Brush and Harper Roads in Lewisburg, and will continue throughout the day into late afternoon, after the bubbling apple mixture is sugared and spiced. Edgewood will provide an opportunity for hands-on participation from peeling apples to stoking the fire, from stirring the delightful delicacy to canning the finished product. If you don’t want the hands-on experience, you may simply come and sit a spell, while watching the process of a tried and true art. You may stay a while or you may stay all day. Bring your lawn chair and enjoy the aroma of cooking apples and spices, warm up at the wood fire if the temperature has dipped, and relax while the leaves fall around you. Lunch will be provided.
While there are recipes to make apple butter in a crock pot or on your stove, and shelves of it at your local supermarket, the best apple butter is made over an open fire in a large kettle with a long wooden paddle. This very old method may require a commitment, but the taste and experience cannot be matched. Join us as we hold true to a nostalgic art of long ago, of good fellowship, and great camaraderie. We won’t be just making apple butter – we’ll be making memories.
