Fall is certainly a season of traditions. For one Maize farm family, there is no bigger tradition that their annual making of apple butter. For more than 75 years, six generations of Woodards have made a delicious spread to enjoy in their own kitchens and share with friends. It requires three bushels of fresh Jonathan apples, 25-pound bags of sugar, 13 family members and eight hours of continuously stirring the potion. The end result is more than 100 jars of apple butter, hours of laughter and years of memories.
Here is a slideshow of the annual tradition of 2010.
NO SECRETS
There are no secret ingredients to the Woodard's apple butter recipe but it is a secret how much of what goes in. Jean Woodard's great-grandson TC Poynter adds apple cider to get the brew going.
FRESH APPLES
Three bushels of apples are cored and peeled the night before the annual day of apple butter. For years the Woodard's peeled the apples at 5 a.m. then put them on the fire around 6:30 a.m. This mean the delicious family spread wasn't complete until 5 p.m. the same day.
HANDCRAFTED
Gerald Woodard scrapes the wooden paddle used to stir apple butter. The original paddle, used by Gerald's great-great-great grandma Mary Clark, was used for years but eventually worn down. A new paddle was made by a local Maize handyman so the Woodard's could continue their annual tradition.
A TURN FOR ALL
McKenna Poynter smiles as she stirs the pot of apple butter for her family. It's tough for four generations of a family to find a weekend when they can skip high school activities, miss jobs and postpone home and farm projects in order to come together. But they do it, every year because it is a tradition.
TRADITIONAL KETTLE
Each year the copper kettle and wooden paddle are brought out of storage and used to make fresh apple butter. Grandma Jean's brother, John, made a metal frame for the old kettle to sit in. Before this, it hung on a bar placed between two barrels.
A LITTLE NUTMEG
Grandma Jean adds nutmeg to the copper kettle and holds the entire recipe in her memory. She's been making it since the age of ten and no where is the recipe written down on paper. It's a little of this and a little of that, Jean says.
SLOW COOKING
Making apple butter is a slow and deliberate process requiring several rounds, and in this case, several generations of people to constantly stir and watch the concoction until its ready. It normally takes between eight hours to cook homemade apple butter.
SHINY KETTLE
After a year of storage the 28-inch wide and 28-inch deep copper kettle is a dark brown color. By the end of a six-hour cooking marathon, the kettle is as bright as a new penny.
LOTS OF SUGAR
Numerous 25-pound bags of sugar are added to the slow-cooked apples. The amount of sugar, nutmeg and cinnamon is determined by a family taste test. Everyone tries a bit on a spoon and decides together whether more of an ingredient should be added.
ROASTING WEENIES
When kids get hungry on apple butter day, it's easy to make lunch. A typical meal will include hot dogs because what tastes better over an open wood fire?
FILLING JARS
Well over 100 eight and 12-ounce Mason jars are filled with fresh apple butter, thanks to the hard work and diligent efforts of every Woodard family member present on Nov. 6, 2010
ASSEMBLY LINE
Watching the Woodard family fill Mason jars of their homemade apple butter might be compared to an aircraft assembly line. Each person has a duty, ranging from scooping, wiping, placing lids and labeling. After all their hard work, each family takes home exactly the same amount of apple butter for their own kitchen tables and as gifts for friends throughout the year.
OFF THE FIRE
It takes two strong men with four strong arms to lift the piping-hot, copper kettle off the first and to the preparation table. Even while moving it, the stirring continues.
LOOKING PERFECT
Once the beautiful apples melt down the butter looks perfect as it is finally complete, an over eight-hour cooking process.