When I was a boy we would occasionally make a meal out of apple butter on bread, doused with fresh, rich, Jersey milk. Not just a little bit of apple butter either. The bread was placed in a dish, and a big dollop of apple butter was spread on it, followed by the milk. It was quick and easy, and delicious too. Our apple butter was always store-bought though, and I wasn’t even aware that some people made their own.

That changed when we moved to Wayne County, and we learned that one of the families in our church made their own apple butter in a large copper kettle over a wood fire, and they shared some with us. For them, it was a tradition passed down from previous generations. Continue reading →