On the Moraine Part VII

By Jim Thompson
HCP columnist

Another feature on the McNary Farm was the orchard. It sat behind the main house, backed up to the property line. It was in a corner of the permanent pasture, but had its own fence to protect it from our imaginary cattle (remember, we had no livestock).

The orchard was in a neglected state when my parents bought the farm, but a few seasons of careful pruning, mowing and fertilizing brought it into good condition. In good years, I would guess it produced 50 or 60 bushels of apples.

My dad had the knack that while driving down the road and he saw a small pile of junk inside one’s yard, he could recognize it. That is how we got our cider press. Dad recognized a pile of rusty iron in someone’s front yard and stopped to buy it. The lady wanted a dollar for it. Dad talked her down to 50 cents.  

He took it home to the shop in Troy, cleaned it up and built new wood parts for the rotten-out pieces (which was all the wood). This included two slatted tubs with the slats riveted to iron bands. This is where you placed the apple pieces that had gone through the crusher (the apple pieces fell out the bottom of the crusher into the tubs). Then you slid the tubs over to the press side of the arrangement and pressed them.  

The press part consisted of a large iron screw and a wheel on top in which you placed a wooden handle to turn it. The tubs had no ends in them and the juice drained into a wooden trough on which the tubs sat.  From there, it drained out the end into a jar or jug. We made vinegar but never made hard cider.

The other thing we would do with apples is make apple butter. Poppy and my Aunt Ruth would come to the farm to do this. Aunt Ruth Beekman never married and was the librarian at Kentucky Christian College in Grayson, Ky.

Mother, Poppy and Aunt Ruth would spend a day peeling and cutting up apples. The next day, we would set up the brass apple butter kettle that held 15 gallons. It sat on an iron “spider.”  

It had a wooden stirrer that consisted of a board about 8 inches wide and 24 inches long. At the top end, at right angles to the board was a handle about two inches in diameter and ten feet long. It will not be a surprise to you to know I still have the kettle, spider and stirrer. I hope they do not go in the trash when I am gone.

So, you put the apples in the kettle, throw in a new tin of cinnamon (not the tin, just the cinnamon) and about a dozen marbles (this is to keep the apple butter from sticking to the bottom.) Build a fire under the kettle, get an old straight kitchen chair, set it about eight feet from the kettle. You’ll want to move the chair about every half hour, going around the kettle, so you get a good mix throughout. Start stirring. And keep stirring. If you started about 7 a.m., along about 4 that afternoon, you can start canning. That will take a couple of hours. Be sure to find the marbles as you get close to the bottom.

The orchard was a bountiful source of wholesome food.

Jim Thompson, formerly of Marshall, is a graduate of Hillsboro High School and the University of Cincinnati. He resides in Duluth, Ga. and is a columnist for The Highland County Press.