Keep on Cookin'
WEST SUNBURY — Applesauce, sugar and cinnamon is what it takes to make apple butter, and, of course, a lot of hard work, patience and love.
For more than 25 years, volunteers at West Sunbury United Presbyterian Church have made and sold the fruity spread as a major annual fundraiser.
Church volunteers were at it again on Tuesday, cooking 18 bushels worth of apples in a half dozen copper kettles outside over open fires. A person manned each smoky kettle, like caldrons, constantly stirring the apple mixture for hours. The group started cooking about 7 a.m.
“We'll cook until at least dinnertime, maybe later,” said Martha Borland, of West Sunbury, slowly stirring one of the kettles with a wooden paddle. Her husband Bob also was stirring nearby.
The long process is to allow a lot of the water to evaporate from the mixture, giving the apple butter its thick, creamy texture.
In the meantime, Christian gospel music played in the background as volunteers made small talk and joked around. Borland said she enjoys the fellowship of the process more than anything else.
Nancy Shawl organized the annual fundraiser in the late 1980s, and the church has been doing it ever since.
“I wanted to do it to show younger people how to do it,” she said.
“I think it's something the church did way, way back,” Borland said. “Families used to make it. That's why we have these kettles.”
The copper kettles are likely more than 100 years old, and are borrowed from families in the community. They're often used solely for making apple butter each year. One kettle was used the first year of the church fundraiser, and as many as a dozen kettles were used in past years.
Shawl said she bought enough apples to make 500 to 600 pints of apple butter.
They use all kinds of apples from area farms, including Musser Fruit Farm in New Bethlehem, and Daubenspecks Orchard in North Washington.“They're the battered ones,” said Lori Shawl, who is Nancy Shawl's daughter. “That's fine by us.”In addition to the 18 bushels of apples they've used, they likely would add more than 300 pounds of sugar to the batch.Apple butter can be used in cake and cookie recipes, spread on toast, among other things.They sell it mostly through word-of-mouth, and they sell out every year.About 30 volunteers come and go during the two-day process. The first day was to make the applesauce, and the second day, to make the sauce into a butter. Some come by for an hour or two to help stir, while others stay all day long.Much of the proceeds go to the Moniteau Food Pantry, since the church often buys fresh foods for it around the holiday season.<br/><br/><br/><br/><br/>
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