Apple butter in Appalachia

Audio Block

Double-click here to upload or link to a .mp3. Learn more

S9:E34. 10/01/2022

Apple butter in Appalachia

Today, we are setting the table with a traditional food of Appalachia, “Apple Butter.” Each year in the fall time of the Mountain South, you can find pockets of people who get together and cook down bushels of apples, sugar, and sometimes cinnamon into this biscuit slathering favorite. It is one of those old-fashioned foods that is still a favorite on dinner tables near and far and makes a favorite holiday gift. Almost as important as the final product is the sense of community and preservation of culinary traditions that these “Apple Butter makings” preserve. Our featured guest is Derek Blankenship, an Occupational Therapist at an East Tennessee long-term health and health care facility in East Tennessee. Derrick and his family keep a family tradition of making apple butter each year at this time of the year in Fall Branch, TN. The recipe that they use dates back to 1905. Fred Sauceman - Professor of Appalachian Studies, ETSU, Johnson City, Tennessee, with an audio essay on apple butter in the mountain south and sausage balls with apple butter.

Links:

Fred Sauceman: -https://www.facebook.com/fred.sauceman?fref=ts

Fall Branch Volunteer Fire Department: https://fallbranchvfd.org/

Pumpkin Pie and news of an Old-Fashioned Country Fair

S9:E33. 09/24/2022

Pumpkin Pie and the Blue Ribbon Country Fair, Townsend, TN

Pumpkin Pie and news of an Old-Fashioned Country Fair, the Blue Ribbon Country Fair, is taking place Saturday, September 24th from 10:00 A.M. - 4:00 P.M. at the Great Smoky Mountain Heritage Center, Townsend, TN.

Our guests are James Gann, a music teacher in Walland, Tennessee. With a specific type of pumpkin he grows and a description of his prize-winning pumpkin pie that won a ribbon at the Blue Ribbon Country Fair in 2019. Haylee Donahue, an East, TN resident. She’ll share her recipe for a gluten-free, dairy-free pumpkin pie and describes how she processes her pie pumpkin (see her recipe below). And In Fred Sauceman’s Pot Luck Radio series New York Times best-selling Novelist Adriana Trigiani shares autumn memories of growing up in Big Stone Gap, VA, and a little story involving the late actress Elizabeth Taylor.

Links:

Great Smoky Mountain Heritage Center: https://www.gsmheritagecenter.org/

Adriana Trigiani: https://adrianatrigiani.com/

Fred Sauceman: https://www.facebook.com/fred.sauceman

Emi Sunshine (sings our theme song): https://theemisunshine.com/

Recipe from Haylee Donahue’s gluten free, dairy free pumpkin pie: (Makes a double batch)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups pumpkin puree
• 12 ounces of coconut milk for dairy free pie. Or, instead of the coconut milk, use 1 (12 ounce) can evaporated milk instead if you do not mind dairy.
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 2 deep dish pie shells (Haylee used the gluten free pie shells from the grocery store)

Directions:

Mix together sugar, salt, spice, and eggs in a bowl.

Add pumpkin puree and almond milk.

Pour into pie shell.

Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes

Musical Educator, Vocalist, Pumpkin grower and prize-winning Pumpkin Pie maker James Gann. Photo: Amy Campbell.

Haylee Donahue with her pie pumpkin. Photo: Amy Campbell.

Iva Spoon Wilde who for many years demonstrated open hearth cooking at the Blue Ribbon Country Fair holds one of her blue ribbons for her canned green beans, at the Blue Ribbon Country Fair 2019. Photo: Amy Campbell.

Corn, Corn Relish, Corn Cob Jelly with Rachel Abbott Davis of J and R Farms, TN

S9:E28. 08/13/2022

Corn, Corn Relish, and Corn Cob Jelly with Rachel Abbott Davis of J and R Farms, TN, plus a beautiful audio essay on corn from author and gardener Kelly Smith Trimble.

Links:

J & R Farms: https://www.jandrfarmstn.com/

Rachel’s Canning Corse: https://rachel-davis-s-school.teachable.com/p/canning-course

Rachel’s instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/jandrfarms_mama/

USDA complete guide to home canning:: https://www.nifa.usda.gov/about-nifa/blogs/usdas-complete-guide-home-canning

Recipe:

This recipe came from a notebook of Rachel’s Great Grandmother Minnie Grindstaff’s canning recipes. Rachel and John had a truckload of corn they needed to do something with, so she decided to try this corn relish recipe out and loved it. They use it on everything, as a side, and it is especially good on pinto beans with cornbread. The recipe calls for cabbage, but Rachel leaves that out.

Ingredient list:

• 12 ears fresh corn
• 1 large cabbage head, shredded
• 6 small garden onions, or 1 or 2 large onions
• 6 bell peppers
• 2 red sweet peppers
• 2 - 4 Jalapeno peppers
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 quart vinegar
• 1 T Salt
• 1 T Ground mustard

Instructions:

Cook corn and vinegar together for 20 minutes, add the rest and cook for 30 minutes. Ladle hot mixture into hot, sterilized jars leaving 1/2 inch head space. Clean jar lids with clean, damp cloth, apply lids and bands and finger tighten bands. Process jars according to approved waterbacth canning instructions, or better yet, Rachel also has posted the complete recipe on her blog. https://www.jandrfarmstn.com/

Rachel also hosts an online canning corse that she calls a can along with details on her instagram page at: https://www.instagram.com/jandrfarms_mama/