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Illinois family reunites with annual apple butter-making
 

 

On the Kessler home place in Divernon, Ill., there is a beautiful barn full of memories. There is the barn itself, and then there are pictures of family members from years back making apple butter, the Methodist men making sausage and of family members just being together.

Collectors of farm memorabilia would thrill to see some of the original tools, the threshing belts, grinder and other farm items that serve as memories and décor in this 100-year-plus-old barn.

While the barn is a mini family museum, the most important aspect of it in early October is the annual apple butter family tradition. This year by 8 a.m. on the day in question, the barn was already filled with the aroma of cooking apples in the copper pot. Kesslers took turns moving the wooden paddle in the pot while others sat watching and talking.

“This started in 1899, the kettle dates back to then,” Carl Kessler said. The barn sits on his and wife Amanda’s farm, where they live with their 10-year-old son, Clayton, and their entertaining farm dog, Frank.

Joining in the festivities in the early morning was Curt Kessler and his son, Evan, 10, along with Carl’s and Curt’s dad, John, and his brother, Bill Jr. and son Mark. The rest of the family and friends would join them later in the day, making this event a community effort.

The copper kettle filled with apples was suspended over a propane (LP) tank-fed fire, but in years past, they used hedge wood. The LP burner was made by Chester Kessler during the 1950s. Carl and Curt built the stand that holds the heavy copper kettle, in 2016.

“This kettle is the first thing my grandfather bought my grandmother in 1899 after they got married,” Bill explained.

To keep the apples from scorching the pot, the family places three silver dollars in the bottom. Bill said the three dollars represent the three great-grandsons – Clayton, Evan and Ryan.

While the wooden paddle they use to stir the apples dates close to the time of the kettle, it is the second one made. Bill said the first paddle is on display on the barn wall. That one didn’t work as well, he said, because it didn’t have holes to “air through” the apples.

“Pop said once the apples are in, the paddle never stops. It moves with the sway of the body,” he added.

When asked the family recipe, Curt said, “To make the apple butter, we use apples and apple cider. This year we used eight bushels of apples and 16 gallons of cider.”

The work began the day before, with family members splitting up the apples to peel and slice. The peeled apples were then put in roasters and cooked overnight.

“We’ve been doing this as long as I remember,” said Bill, who noted the barn where the apples were cooking was built back around 1880. The family did take a break for a few years, but the apple butter tradition resumed and has been going strong ever since.

Over the years, the barn has had many uses. A few years back, a storm destroyed part of it and it had to be rebuilt. “This was called the horse barn. The horses left late in the 1930s, then we milked cows here. We milked about 16 cows a day,” recalled Bill, who just turned 84.

In the barn there is a sidesaddle that belonged to John’s and Bill’s grandmother. “Her first husband was killed in a mine accident. This saddle belonged to her second husband’s mom, and it dates back to 1830 or so,” Bill said.

There is also a pretty old plow. “Grandpa came here in 1840 – he broke the prairie sod with this plow. As a kid, I remember it being hooked to a Massey Ferguson and being used in the garden,” Bill said.

He added that electricity came to the barn first around 1938 or 1939, then it was installed later in the house. He remembered working in this very barn listening to radio news about World War II.

This cooking day really isn’t about the food at all; it is all about family connecting and making memories from one generation to the next. This event is one to wrap up the summer and relive later as the snow flies, while eating warm bread with tasty apple butter.

 

Readers with questions or comments for Cindy Ladage may write to her in care of this publication. Learn more of Cindy’s finds and travel in her blog, “Traveling Adventures of a Farm Girl,” at http://travelingadventuresofafarmgirl.com

11/17/2017