Ward and I spent the weekend with Miss Landers at her cabin. As part of our plan, we visited the Apple Harvest Festival in Burlington, WV, where the showcase event was apple butter making. There were several large copper kettles cooking apples and spices that produced gallons and gallons of apple butter. All of the stirring was done by volunteers and started a week before the festival began. People came from far and near to stir and to buy the finished product. We didn't help with the stirring, but we certainly helped with the buying.
In addition to the apple butter making, there was an Apple Dumpling Contest, continuous live music, a fiddle contest, a parade, a quilt show, crafts, a car show, a big flea market, an ox roast, a carnival, and lots of friendly people. Even though the grounds were crowded, everyone seemed to be in a good mood and to be having a good time.
While we enjoyed ourselves at the festival, we wouldn't normally think much about an outing like this later. However this time, we had a lot of food for thought. Burlington is a town of 182 people. How could a town of 182* manage to put on something this big? I actually talked to someone at the information booth about this very question. She told me that since it was for Burlington United Methodist Family Services, the local library, and the local fire department; everyone pulled together to make it happen. And after almost 40 years, it has become a local tradition.
Now that's an interesting idea--people helping their neighbors. They just saw a need in their community and did what it took to make it work. No magic, just hard work. And that's how they did it.
Our Day at the Apple Festival
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| The apples for the apple butter came from a local orchard. |
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| Sometimes families worked together to stir the cooking apple butter. |
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| There were some amazing quilts in the quilt show. |
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| We also bought some cider. |
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| Ward browsed a lot of the flea market, but didn't buy anything. |
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| This stage hosted the music |
* In case you're wondering, Burlington is not a suburb in a large metropolitan area. The next closest town is about 15 miles away has around 5000 people in its"metropolitan area".
