There are few things cozier than toast or biscuits with apple butter on a chilly fall day.

The tradition of making apple butter is one that runs deep in the George family of Towamensing Township.

It started when Clair and Margaret George had the farm on Strohl’s Valley Road.

The family would get together to make the apple butter. Then the tradition seemed to come to an end around 1985, but in 2010 the family decided to revive the fun and spend a weekend making the sweet concoction.

Clair and Margaret’s granddaughter, Melissa (George) Fronheiser, explained the process.

“Friday night we started peeling the applies. My nieces, nephews, and cousins were all in charge of peeling them. The adults handled the knives and so we did all the cutting.”

In keeping with tradition, they used the old-fashioned apple peelers. You push the apple into the prongs of the rotary rod and start cranking.

“We start with about 20 gallons of apple cider and begin cooking that until it starts to cook down,” Melissa said. “We started that around 11 o’clock Friday night. About 5:30 Saturday morning, we start adding apples. The apples will cook and be churned in the kettle. As they get softer more apples are added.”

The antique kettle that is used to cook the apple butter is a large copper kettle with paddles that stir the mixture constantly. It needs to be cranked to operate the paddles. At some point in its history, a motor was added, making it easier to use.

“The kettle, it’s got to be over a hundred years old,” Rodney George, Melissa’s father, said. “It was my great grandfather’s. It came down though the generations.”

“At some point, we’ll add sugar, cinnamon, and we’ll add cloves just for taste,” Melissa said. “Once it gets to the right consistency, we’ll start pouring it into jars.”

They made 101 jars of apple butter and 47 jars of applesauce. The finished products are divided among the family.