Remember the three witches from Macbeth? In the first scene of Act IV, those wacky witches, or weird sisters, as they are sometimes called, are found hovering over a big vat filled with some kind of gurgling, hissing, spitting substance, while chanting “Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble; fire burn and cauldron bubble.” It’s never revealed what exactly is in that cauldron, but I’m guessing it was apple butter.
I came to this conclusion after my recent experience making my own batch of apple butter. Except that instead of a cauldron, I used a Dutch oven. But, there was a lot of bubbling, gurgling and spitting. And, even though I’m not a witch, I may have done a little chanting too. You know, just to help things along.
For the record, I’d never made apple butter before. I never needed to. Believe it or not, the artsy, chi chi, touristy resort town that I live in is also home to a small, yet well established Amish enclave called Pinecraft. That’s right. Right smack dab in the middle of our chic little slice of suburbia with its opera house, designer shops and art galleries, lies a thriving Amish community complete with roadside fruit stands, horse-drawn buggies and of course, country cookin’ restaurants. Anytime I felt the urge for some delicious, homemade apple butter, all I had to do was pop over to Pinecraft and pick some up. After all, homemade is homemade – even if not by me.
Filed Under: Breakfast and Brunch, Canning and Preserving, Fruits, Jams and Jellies, Recipes
