Some Thoughts on Apple Butter

Regarding the rules for West Virginia, The Farmer’s Market Vendor Guide: A Guide for Farmers, Sanitarians, and the Consumer lists apple butter, along with sorghum and molasses, as a food product with a special classification.  It can be produced outdoors in open copper kettles and then sold at Farmer’s Markets and other venues.  In order to sell most foods, the facility where they are produced is required have some level of certification as a commercial kitchen.  The reasoning for excepting these foods is that the combination of high temperatures before jarring and the generous amount of sugar they contain decrease the likelihood that the product is “potentially hazardous” to a very low level.  Maybe it also speaks to tradition and tourism, too.  Demonstrations of the historical method for making apple butter are featured at a number of fall festivals.  And at least two cities in West Virginia have dedicated Apple Butter Festivals!

Photo lifted from the Salem Apple Butter Festival, Inc.
Facebook page.

I had high hopes for a really unique experience when I drove the 30-ish miles east to Salem this afternoon.  With  no disrespect intended for the many hours of work put in by the folks who organize this festival, I have to say I was a bit disappointed.  It was busy and active and by all those kinds of measures, successful.  It's just... there was nothing to set it apart from any other street fair in any other town in America, except for the apple butter making demonstration.  I do have to say, I did enjoy watching it simmering in a big open kettle over a wood fire! That historical aspect is what was missing from the rest of the festival, in my opinion, as this was surely the best part of it for me.

Photo from the official website of the
Salem Apple Butter Festival, Inc.

However, you don’t need an open roaring fire or a big copper kettle to make really great apple butter.  Basically, it’s apples and sugar and spices cooked down to a jam-like consistency.  You can do it stovetop or even in your crockpot using any one of the dozens of recipes available on Pinterest.  Or, if  you are that kind of woman, you can bust out the cauldron and go for it outdoors... One of these soon to come days, I plan to give it a try!  Probably on the stovetop, though.

And unless I find a good reason to choose otherwise, McIntosh will be my apple of choice.

Photo from Jane Lear (actually read this post on
her fancy food blog - great guide for choosing
your apples!)

The West Virginia-grown McIntosh's seem especially delicious to me this year... maybe they always are; this is my first time tasting them here and I am wowed by their tangy sweetness with just a hint of strawberry flavor.  I'm pretty sure I could be a very happy girl with a whole orchard of these beauties in my yard!!  And the boys are surely loving having them fresh as our nightly snack!  Me too.

5 Products I Wish I Could Find

Obviously I found them... What I REALLY wish is to find them in my local grocery store in Georgia.

Photo credit:  Amazon.com

Cinnamon Bears
Even better, but I can make my own in a pinch, would be Chocolate Covered Cinnamon Bears.  I do occasionally give in to the craving and drop $20 for a 5-lb bag on Amazon.com then ration them out to myself a handful at a time for the next few weeks.  But it would be so much easier to pick up a little bag now and then at the grocery store...  Before giving in to Amazon orders I searched Publix, Kroger, CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid, Walmart, Target, Dollar Tree, Dollar General - basically every store with a candy counter that I stepped foot in for over a month.  No one had ever heard of them.  And more than a few looked at me like I was a little nuts claiming there was a bear-shaped candy that tasted like an Atomic Fireball and had the consistency of a Swedish Fish.

Photo credit:  Amazon.com

Redmond Real Salt
I love this for cooking and the occasional sprinkle on food at the table.  The package claims that it tastes different.  And, like a lot of people, I thought that was a bogus claim until I did their test and tried a few grains of regular salt on my tongue, big drink of water, and a few grains of Redmond Real Salt on my tongue.  It was different.  And better.  And so pretty with those pink and copper colored mineral inclusions.  Also available on Amazon.com... one day I will get some!  And then replace the salt in every shaker in the house!!

Photo credit: http://www.brandeating.com

Claim Jumper Chicken Pot Pie
Sorry Marie Callendar... I get yours as a substitute once in a great awhile but only because I can't get Claim Jumper's here.  That makes me sad, even now, during the much too hot to eat pot pie summertime.  Claim Jumper's pot pies just taste so much better to me!  Better seasoned filling with more chicken and a flakier crust.  And usually a bit cheaper price tag, too... sigh.  Baking them is the best, but I usually couldn't make myself wait and microwaved them and that was perfectly acceptable.

Photo credit:  grandmaspasta.com

  Grandma's Frozen Egg Noodles

  Or any frozen home-style noodle, for that

  matter.  The days last   week when it was chilly

  and raining so hard I wanted with every fiber of
  my being to make a pot of chicken noodle
  soup.  I didn't do it.  And the only reason was
  because I'd have to either drag out the pasta
  machine and spend half a day making them
  first or use those dried egg noodles and that
  just sort of ruined the whole appeal of even
  making soup.

Photo credit: http://www.coxshoney.com

Creamed Honey
As a child I learned that the flavor of honey depended a lot on the food sources available to the bees.  Growing up in Shelley, ID the main source of food for those bees was clover.  And it made for the absolute best honey in the world!!  I admit, I've bought some pretty decent honey here in GA.  It works fine on toast, or in tea, or to cook with.  Perfectly palatable!  But runny honey is just not quite what I'm craving...  (And terms like "creamed honey" and "runny honey" get me that questioning raised eyebrow look from the grocery manager!)  All I need is money, and I'll be placing an order.