My dad loved apple butter, but not for the type bought in the store. He yearned for some made the old-fashioned way, like his mom and grandmother made in the mountains of Mitchell County, North Carolina when he was a boy.
The last Autumn of his life, he went out and bought a huge, antique copper kettle, several bushels of apples, brown sugar and the spices. Then he and my mom peeled away for a couple of days. Their fingers blackened from all the slicing and peeling.
Finally, with apples, sugar,, spices and water in the copper pot, with a biig wooden paddle, he slowly stirred and stirred away at the fragrant concoction over an open fire for hours. Finally done, he and my mom dipped away at the luscious bounty. My mom then began the canning process for future use on hot biscuits.
The end product was nothing less than DELICIOUS.
