Apple Butter: Grand Finale

First, because it always makes me laugh in amazed disbelief, a quick recap of our raw materials:

800 lbs of Jonathon apples. check.

60 lbs of sugar. check.

1 lb of cinnamon. check.

Star anise. check.

Total yield: just over 600 jars of Grandma June's Apple Butter!

After showing Kellie and I how to make apple butter in the crock pot, Grandma June thought it would be good to have a practice run making apple butter in her kettle. So on a chilly September morning we made a fire and 8 hours later we canned over 100 jars of apple butter. Cooking in the kettle is not for the feint of heart! But it is fun. A LOT of work, but fun.

Then, October 10 -11 we drove to St. James to demonstrate cooking in the kettle and sell apple butter at Old Iron Works Days. I think we did pretty well. At least we made enough money that the over all experience is now a pretty pleasant memory. The best way to share it, is with pictures.

I'll try to keep narration to a minimum.

Grandma June's kettle holds 3 bushels of apples. No problem.

Here's a good shot of Kellie, the mastermind of this project. Did I mention before that cooking in the kettle is a lot of work? We're talking between 6-8 hours of constant stirring. I was very jealous that Kellie thought of this method for stirring.

Here I am with Grandma June, sporting my favorite rain boots! Stephanie, do you remember driving all over Chicago so I could find them?

Kellie is being goofy here, but its a nice shot of the cute apron she bought in Hermann. Love the cherries!

This is my iconic "Grandma June" picture. Don't worry about the smoke pouring out of the kettle, that's normal. At least Grandma June wasn't concerned.

Our tables looked pleasant and inviting don't you think? We gave out samples, which was a big hit with the grownups. So many children though asked for just a cracker or plain bread or even apples from our display!

We had so much help pulling this off! At least 7 women worked on this at one time or another, husbands were cajoled into watching children ALONE for days or left ALONE for days or DRUG along to HELP. So needless to say there was some sacrificing happening behind the scenes, for which we are eternally grateful. We also had the sweetest, most laid back baby I've ever met with us for the main event. She probably increased sales by 20% with her presence alone. Many smoked turkey legs were consumed. All of them were delicious.