SHEPHERDSTOWN—Volunteers at Shepherdstown Fire Department have carved out the last week in October for the past 35 years and committed the time to making what has become a staple on many tables—their delicious apple butter.
The work begins early in the week as kettles are set up in the engine bay where the cooking beings Tuesday, continues Wednesday and culminates Saturday at the official apple butter event open to the public.
“We started back in 1989 when we moved into this building,” shared member Marty Braithwaite who has been a part of the process for many years. Braithwaite’s job, said Chief Ross Morgan, is to keep the propane burners burning. Of the 23 kettles filled with bubbly butter on Saturday, 22 of them were heated by propane heat and were found inside the bay rather than outside where the process occurred years before. Bad weather one year had the kettles moved inside and that move has been a good one that has been continued with the use of the propane heaters…