There was great excitement in the house. Tomorrow was to be the great boiling
down of the apples to make apple butter at my Great-grandmother Furr's home.
This house was about half a mile west of Dayton. The relatives were to come
in the morning and stay all day to help. The men were out in the orchard getting
apples to use. Romany apples were the kind used. They were excellent for eating
and cooking. When stored in barrels in the basement they lasted till the next
summer. Some of the smaller cousins were helping pick up apples, too. Some of
the windfalls were used in making cider in great-grandmother's cider presses.
She had two of them.
People used to come from miles around with wagon
loads of apples to be made into cider. In later years when the grist mill at
Dayton ground apples and pressed out the juice for cider the people used to take
their apples over there and have them ground. Eventually my great-grandmother
did, too.
The best apples on the ground were used to make apple butter.
The cider was made and boiled down. The stirrers, which are long wooden paddies
with handles set in them at right angles, long enough to keep the person
stirring from getting too hot, were made from the wood of a large maple tree
that had been injured when the crib burned down.
Early the next morning
the boys were in the orchard picking up more apples.
Somebody had to go
to town to get the relatives that were to help. When they arrived they exchanged
greetings, as they hadn't seen each other probably for quite a while. They set
to work washing apples. After they were washed, the young folks peeled them with
two peelers. The young people thought it quite a bit of fun to turn the crank on
the peelers, but the novelty wore off before the apples were all peeled. The
older folks sat down and cored the peeled apples.
Some cider was put in
the boilers to keep the apples from burning. As soon as the apples were peeled
and cored they were popped into the boilers. They kept on boiling down. As soon
as the boilers were filled enough so that they wouldn't boil down much more, the
young folks went out in the pasture to catch old "Dexter." The city cousins
considered riding old "Dexter" much fun, even if he was a driving horse instead
of a riding horse. Two or three of the young folks got on the horse at once.
Much of the time was spent also by the young people in rambling over the
farm and sometimes sliding down the strawstacks. Also amusement could be found
in the barn, both in the hay loft and in where the animals were.
The men
worked in the fields after carrying in apples by the basketful. Each one of the
younger folks took his turn stirring the boiling apples.
The women had a
sociable time preparing dinner. The relatives stayed to supper that the women
had prepared. After supper the visitors usually went home and the women at
grandmother's finished the work.
They took the apple butter off the
stove at about nine o'clock. Then it had to be put in crockery jars about ten
inches high. A cork fitted into the top that was about half an inch thick. This
was sealed with sealing wax. A few days later the butter was divided and each
family took some home. Everyone that had helped make the apple butter could be
reminded of a pleasant day at Grandma Furr's whenever they tasted of the butter.
Extracted 08 Nov 2018 by Norma Hass from Stories of Pioneer Days in La Salle County, Illinois, by Grammar Grade Pupils, published in 1932, page 60.
| Lee | DeKalb | Kane |
| Bureau |
 |
Kendall |
| Putnam | Grundy | |
| Marshall | Woodford | Livingston |
