Fields of Plenty

This year, February is confounding us. It is 66 degrees on February 4.   On our farm, that constitutes a heat wave. No measurable snow so far this year. It feels like spring. And we had sunshine today!   February 2 marks the day we are closer to the start of spring than the beginning of winter—and it is sure feeling like spring today.   The additional daylight is quite noticeable now, and we have passed that magic 10-hours mark, when plants increase their growth exponentially. Woo hoo! I hope this means an early spring! But I know all too well that the end of February and all through March can be treacherous. I know you have been keeping track of this also, that March 20-25, 2018, was close to the coldest week of the winter. And March 20-25, 2019, was one of the coldest weeks of the winter. I suspect winter is not done with us. In the meantime, though, primroses are popping up, and calendula are looking at me, and lilies of the valley have been planted. The early tomatoes are

Apple butter is a unique, old-fashioned way of preserving some of the apple harvest for winter consumption.  It is made by very slow cooking apples, and frequent stirring thereof. My mother, Elaine Linton, remembers her grandmother, Mary P. Webster, making apple butter in the large kettle which hung from a metal stand, over a carefully tended wood fire outside. It took about 2 days and nights for the apples to cook down in an apple cider slurry, turn a rich brown color, and then be ready for canning. No sugar was added, for sugar was quite expensive and everyone liked the flavor of the butter just as it was. People like my mother, who grew up canning with her mother and grandmother, find canning easy. I suppose after 80+ years of practice, it should be easy! Our apple butter is all apples, apple cider, no sugar, seasoned with a little cinnamon, just the way my great-grandmother used to make it. It is naturally sweet and delicious!  I like it on bagels, on oatmeal, as a base for