COSHOCTON − If one expects to witness anything at the Apple Butter Stirrin’ Festival in Roscoe Village, it’s apple butter being made.
That duty has been held for about 10 years by FFA students from Ridgewood High School.
They get apples from Yury’s Orchard in Adamsville. This includes EverCrisp, Red Delicious, Fuji and others. The apples are peeled and cut at school, then blended into a consistency like applesauce. From there, it’s cooked down in a copper kettle for about six hours until forming apple butter.
Students Jaxon Huff and Carter Osborne manned the kettle during the festival, among others, while additional students canned the apple butter. Freshman Wyatt Wilkin scooped the apple butter out of the kettle with a pan to pour into jars, which were then sold to visitors for $8 a jar.
“I just like being around the people and getting to socialize. It’s a good experience,” Wilkin said. “I like learning about this kind of stuff, learning to do stuff the old way.”
FFA Adviser Logan Pyers said funding goes to a variety of projects from food for meetings to buying Christmas presents for youth via Coshocton County Job and Family Services. They make around $5,000 a year from the fundraiser.
“The kids learn how to talk to people and the process of how we can preserve food. They learn proper handling and (public relations) and marketing,” Pyers said of the value of being at the festival for students.
This article originally appeared on Coshocton Tribune: Ridgewood High School FFA students make apple butter for annual Roscoe Village festival
Reporting by Leonard L. Hayhurst, Coshocton Tribune / Coshocton Tribune
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
