Cider and Apple Butter

We had an apple orchard on the hill next to the house, I guess grandpa must have planted it when he bought the farm. Anyhow, we always had lots of apples when I was little; Northern Spies, Winesap, McIntosh, etc. One year, it must have been in 1940 while we still had the Buick, Dad picked a lot of apples and loaded the car full and tied a 55 gallon barrel full of apples on the back bumper. He took me along with him and we went to Alcola to a fellow who owned a cider press. The press was a big tub like device with a big screw and handle that mashed the apples. We had enough apples to fill the barrel with cider. When we got home Dad put the cider in the basement and we had all the cider we wanted to drink for along time. After a while the cider fermented and got a fairly high alcohol content. Mom was not to pleased, but dad seemed to like the idea. I remember him telling the hired man to stay away from the cider or he would be fired.

I think it was in 1941 that we made a big kettle of apple butter. Dad connected up a gas burn to the gas line that ran from the well to the house. He put it on the yard next to the kitchen. He then built a tripod and hung the copper kettle on it. (That is the kettle that we have in the basement.) He filled the kettle with apples and cider and lit the gas. Well it took all day to boil down the apples. Someone had to keep stiring the mixture so it didn't stick. I was too small to get involved with that. I guess they added sugar and maybe some other spices. When they had reduced the apples to butter, they poured it in big crocks and covered them over with cloth and waxed paper. We must have had 10 gallons of apple butter in the basement. It was really good on home made bread. I don't think we had any jam or jelly that winter.