Apple Butter Festival November 28, 2008

Pioneer families gathered in late fall to cook up apple butter from the last apples of the season. It was a practical way to preserve the apples and a pleasurable way to preserve community spirit. Our annual Thanksgiving weekend Apple Butter Festival celebrates this fine old tradition, and we invite families to come up and share in it. We’ll have a hands-on demonstration of apple butter making the old-time way - outdoors in a big copper kettle - plus pioneer crafts and games, music, carriage rides, and lots more. The chuckwagons will use the apple butter we cook up to create their own unique dishes — come taste and vote on Sunday. The chuckwagons will also prepare a pumpkin stew for Saturday night's Apple Butter Hoedown (6 p.m. - ticket required). Enjoy our pumpkin stew, served up in large Cinderella pumpkins and then kick up your heels at a good old-fashioned hoedown, with music by Rileys Mountaineers.