Apple Sauce Day

To my great sadness I managed to miss the great Fairwood Apple Sauce Day. However, last year for school I wrote a little article about that event so full of many fond memories, and in honor of the occasion I shall post it here today.

Ever since I was small, apple-sauce day has always been special. First, on the chosen autumn morning you enter the kitchen where bushels of juicy red apples lie in heaps all around. Then comes the cutting. About a dozen people crowd around a long table, perched on stools and chattering away happily. My hands wet with water and juice, I grip a cold knife, slicing freely, while grabbing a tart bite here and there. The apple slurps in protest of being dissected, the blade knocks the cutting board, and then a heavy plink is heard as the apple piece sails into the bottom of a monstrous pot. Soon these are overflowing, and a bibleschool lad nabs them one at a time and brings them to the big black stove to boil. When the steam is billowing out from the pot's depths, he gingerly picks it up with flowery hot pads and races to the next point. Here is the actual apple sauce machine, in all its humming glory, and the privileged worker scoops the steamy mush and dumps it into a bowl-like object. Squishing it down the funnel with a plastic red masher, it's hot work but can be fun. In a matter of seconds, bright pink applesauce comes gushing down a slide to collect in a large metal bowl, while the pulp rolls ponderously out the side and drops to its end in a garbage bucket.

As each aromatic bowl is brimming, it's quickly replaced with another and swooped to the counter nearby. This is where you go if you want to steal some of the spicy sweet concoction in a cup. Here a bibleschool girl bedecked in an apron measures out mounds of sugar to pour into selected portions of applesauce, before funneling the burning mixture into quart jars, marking them, and sealing them. Soon endless rows of warm pink jars are lined up on a small table in the corner, as well as on the floor and on a cart, ready to be deposited in the delightfully musty interior of the Main House cellar. Although applesauce day is tiring to some, it is evidence of diligent labor and hearty teamwork, which can lead to many happy memories.