Ing, Saturday, October 22, 1994
810-Lancaster Farmii
Fall Is The Season For Yummy Apple Cider And Apple Butter
GAY BROWNLEE
Somerset Co. Correspondent
SALISBURY (Somerset Co.)
Hey kids, have you noticed
how everything is changing now
that fall is here? Doesn’t the sky
seem a deeper shade of blue above
gold and red leaves hanging on the
trees? Some trees are already bare.
There’s a chilly nip in the air
that makes you grab a sweatshirt,
jacket or sweater before going
outside. I’ll bet you do it almost
without thinking. No doubt you
stuff some tissues in a pocket
’cause your nose may drip. Noses
tend to drip in colder weather.
And your moms and grandmas
are covering pretty flowers at
night so the frost doesn’t destroy
their prettiness by changing them
into a yukky shade of brown.
It’s also the season for crisp
apples and the making of apple
butter and apple cider.
Not everybody has an apple
butter and apple cider plant near
where they live like I do. But a
man named Menno Beachy has a
plant just a few miles away. When
white vapors are rising from the
valley, everybody knows cider
and applebutter are being made
there. That’s because when the
apple cookers are going, ceiling
vents let heavy steam escape to
the outside. It’s different from
chimney smoke.
First the raw apples are
dumped into an outside chute.
They tumble through a washing
cycle on a conveyor.
Mr. Beachy says, “Those
apples get a genuine scrubbing.”
Then the elevator takes them
high to a grinder where they are
ground-up before going to the
cider press.
Through the steam two men
are seen releasing crushed apples
onto a square pallet that they’ve
covered with a sturdy material.
They spread the crushed apples
about four inches deep. The four
corners of the material are folded
over that layer and a new layer is
started on top.
They repeat the process 11
times before moving the layers to
the cider press. Mr. Beachy calls
it “stacking ”
He says it’s an old-fashioned
method that still works better than
some new machines that take less
work but have too much waste.
The cider press take about 15
minutes to do its job. Then Terry
Wegman and Reuben Sommers
reopen the covers and dump the
apple pulp on an elevator that drops
it on a heap outside the building.
Later, the pulp helps to feed deer
and other animals, they said.
To make apple butter, you cook
cider and applesauce together. It
takes almost an hour and a half for
one batch. It bubbles out of the
stainless steel cookers and looks
like little brown frogs jumping out
of water.
When the bubbling gets really
bad, an employee turns on the
water hose and sprays away the
outside goo.
“Why are you doing that?” he
was asked. .
“To keep it clean,” he said,
adding that if the applebutter isn’t
rinsed off right away it gets .hard
and crusty. You can’t ever clean it
off then.
He knows when the applebut
ter is exactly right by how it drips
off his wooden paddle when it’s
dipped into the mixture.
Then Fannie' Beachy, Mr.
Beachy’s sister, fills new jars with
the fresh applebutter.
She’s amazing. She pulls
down a lever and zip, the jar fills
in a second. She passes it to a per
son with the lid and grabs another
jar. Fannie never runs it over even
though it comes out of the spout
so fast.
Ron Higson and his son-in
law, Brian Root, from Wiley
Ford, West Virginia, come to
Beachy’s every year with truck
loads of red and yellow Delicious
apples. They bring about 1,800 or
2,000 bushels of them.
Mr. Higson says applebutter is
a very healthy product and one of
his favorite foods.
Mr. Beachy won’t let super
markets sell his applebutter
Terry Wegman and Reuben Sommers are stacking lay
ers of crushed apples 11 tiers high to be pressed into
fresh apple cider at Sam Beachy and Sons, Salisbury, Pa.
Sam Beachy and
cider
because it is a special food prod
uct that’s completely natural.
Only 48 stores in the United
States get to sell it. Those are spe
cialty stores where quality is more
important than how much is sold.
Of course, people can buy it at the
plant or call Sam Beachy and Sons.
That’s the name of the business.
Applebutter is tasty and good
for you. Some folks spread it over
bread. Others like it on top of cot
tage cheese. And apple cider is a
terrific drink, hot or cold, plain, or
fancied up with spices.
If an applebutter and cider
making plant is near you, ask
someone to take you there. It’s
family fun and an educational
field trip for school classes.
Here in Salisbury, Beachy’s
won’t make applebutter or cider
after Thanksgiving Day. But by that
time, Mr. Beachy says Sam Beachy
and Sons will have make 60,000
gallons of apple cider and 20,000
gallons of applebutter this fall.
ms, Sal
iry, Pa.
Here the red Delicious apples are coming out of the
washer, the first step for making cider or applebutter.
Terry Wegman will put them in the applesauce tank.
Fannie Beachy fills pint |ars with fresh applebutter at
Sam Beachy and Son, Salisbury, Pa.