The Apple Butter Festival is a time to decompress and enjoy a lovely fall day. The event runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. Opening ceremonies at 10 a.m. on Saturday will feature the Greenon High School band and choir.
The cooking fires for making apple butter will be started before dawn on Saturday and Sunday. And the 50-gallon copper kettles will soon been boiling away all the extra moisture and making that apple butter thick and rich.
From the early light, community members and local office holders will soon be taking turns stirring the apple butter with large oak paddles just as it was done 100 years ago.
A recent test run has confirmed that the original apple butter recipe is back and quality ingredients will be used as they were decades ago.
Because of increased costs, prices had had to be raised for the first time in decades. A new pint jar with the traditional Enon Mound label will now cost $8 or two for $15.
Credit: Bill Lackey
Credit: Bill Lackey
The Enon Apple Butter Festival is known for its delicious fare. There are lots of wonderful food booths managed by small locally owned businesses and by clubs having fundraisers. Featured items include homemade pies, chicken and noodles, old-fashioned apple fritters, bean soup and corn bread, pork chops, BBQ, burgers, and so much more.
The VFW will have homemade cabbage rolls in addition to their fantastic cootie corn. The Independent Riders will be selling brats to pay for Thanksgiving turkeys for Enon Relief. These are also the folks who manage the parking behind the school.
Speaking of parking, there should be plenty of parking in the large lot behind the old Enon Elementary building. Follow the arrow on the red apples painted on the streets. If it is full, plenty of legal parking spots can be found in town.
Organizers are urging the public to seek out those legal parking spots instead of making some of the somewhat legendary choices that have happened in the past.
Don’t even think about parking next to a working gas pump at a filling station. If you do, I seeing towing in your future. Also parking in a business’ drive-through is obviously a no-no. Some businesses in the Enon have also asked that festival goers not take the parking spots reserved for customers. If an area is posted “no parking” or customers only, please respect it.
Remember no pets are allowed at the Apple Butter Festival. By pets they mean no dogs, cats, goats, snakes, pigs, horses, parrots, rats, guinea pigs, chickens, geese, ducks, etc., etc. And no partridges in any of the trees.
This is no surprise. For decades the Enon Community Historical Society has asked to not have dogs for various reasons including public safety.
As always the quality craft booths at the Apple Butter are great places to start Christmas shopping. I’ve bought our first presents there quite a few times. Christmas is only 10 short weeks away, and this relaxing event is a great place to get started. And of course remember that a jar of apple butter is always well received.
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