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How theMcClellans make apple butter They start with five bushels of apples, usually the Rome variety. Once the apples start cooking and the butter reaches the desired consistency, they add sugar and cinnamon oil to the mix. They continue stirring the mixture, each taking a turn with a homemade stirrer and adding apple juice if it gets too thick, until it reaches a dark color. The process usually starts around 6 a.m. and the butter is done around 8 p.m. Five bushels of apples yields around 60 pints of butter that the crew distribute among themselves and give as gifts throughout the year. How the Greenmont School Community Center volunteers make apple butter Volunteers manned six kettles of apple butter in the making last year when their award-winning butter was concocted. They used a mixture of Morgan County apples from a local orchard and added white sugar, cloves, and cinnamon oil to the mash. There was less reliance on a single recipe than on the collective apple butter knowledge on hand, so the group went with their guts, tasting along the way, until the vats of butter passed the test. “We just kept adding spices and flavors until, boom, there it was,” says community center Treasurer Heironimus.
CELEBRATING Apple Butter There are plenty of chances to celebrate Appalachia’s favorite butter this fall. Because COVID-19 might force last- minute cancellations of events, we suggest you double-check published schedules before heading to any of these festivals. SEPTEMBER 18-21 Clay County Golden Delicious Festival Head to the Mountain Lakes for a visit to the birthplace of the Golden Delicious apple and its namesake annual festival. @claywv on FB OCTOBER 1–3 Burlington Apple Harvest Festival Celebrate apple butter and browse the art, craft, and flea market at the 48th annual
festival in the Potomac Highlands. bumfs.org/apple-harvest-festival
OCTOBER 6–9 Salem Apple Butter Festival Enjoy traditional apple butter making, children’s games, antique cars and trucks, and plenty more in Mountaineer Country. salemapplebutterfestival.com
OCTOBER 8–10 Wetzel County Autumn Fest
Appreciate traditional crafts like apple butter making, chair caning, and pottery, plus live music, a horse and livestock show, baking contests, and more in the Northern Panhandle. Find the festival on Facebook.
OCTOBER 9–10 Apple Butter Festival
Visit the 47th year of this beloved Berkeley Springs festival and harvest celebration that fills the streets with countless kettles of apple butter in the making and hundreds of other food vendors. @applebutterfestivalwv on FB OCTOBER 15–17 Mountain State Apple Harvest Festival This Martinsburg festival is one of the state’s largest, celebrating all things apple with a pie baking contest, the crowning of Baby Appleseed, an annual apple trample, and plenty more for the whole family. msahf.com
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