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Apple butter making in the hollows
Joan Pullen Baldwin has made apple butter with the family of her husband, Bobby Baldwin, for many years. The recipe they use, passed down from Bobby’s grandparents, Clyde and Lillian Pullen, honors not only the memory of what was once a thriving apple industry in Rappahannock County, but also the traditions that were part of that era and live today in Rappahannock's hollows.Three years ago, Junior Pullen, Joan’s brother, talked to his mom Eleanor Pullen about buying a copper kettle and reviving the ritual in their family. So Junior bought the kettle at Elmer’s Antiques and Joan has shared the process she learned for the apple butter with her family, making it at her mother’s home in Gid Brown Hollow in Washington, Va., since then.
Last Friday at 9 a.m. Momma Eleanor began peeling and thinly slicing 11 bushels of Golden Grime and Ida Red apples from Lee’s Orchard in Rappahannock, joined by her children and grandchildren on the front porch as the day went on.
By 5 p.m. fingers were sore, but the job was done. Before sun up on Saturday, Jerry Pullen, Pam Pullen Alther, Greg Pullen and Junior Pullen had the fire going and the first batch of apples in the kettle. Jerry had made the long-handled paddle of a piece of cured oak, with holes at the base to make it more effective while stirring the apples. Once you start the fire, you cannot stop stirring so three generations of the family took turns. Sliced apples, added one pot-full at a time, must cook down before the next apples are added.
By 12:30 p.m., the last of the apples were in the pot. Sighs, groans and jokes greeted Joan’s announcement that there were only five more hours of stirring to go.
What kept everyone going? Good humor, lots of teasing, the sounds of happy grandchildren playing on the farm, a perfect fall day and lunch of barbecued ribs, Joan’s homemade potato salad, Pam’s applesauce cake and watermelon from Junior’s garden kept Momma Pullen, her adult children, their spouses and grandchildren stirring that kettle.
At 4:30 p.m. sugar was added and the stirring continued for yet another hour. At 5:30 p.m., 12 hours after the fire had been lit that morning, Joan added the spices, mixed with a bit of sugar, in the final step in the cooking process.
Getting the boiling hot apple butter into the jars again engaged the entire family. With an ingenious adaptation, Junior Pullen had taken a stainless steel beer barrel, cut off the top and attached a homemade valve to a hole he had made in the bottom. This entire creation was then affixed to a stainless steel crate, making it possible to fill the jars, all washed, waiting and glimmering in the sunshine, with the hot apple butter, with great efficiency and no spillage. The family team went quickly to work scooping the delicious hot apple butter from the kettle into the dispenser, opening, filling and re-capping the canning jars.
As Joan’s husband said, "It is a lot work, but it is worth it. You know what you are eating."
Family rituals passed from generation to generation create a sense of safety and belonging in a family. Making apple butter is one example of a family ritual that is so much more than just filling the cupboards for the winter.
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