Apple Butter: Comfort in a Jar

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Old-Fashioned Apple Butter in Crossville

When tragedy and illness struck Cumberland County Farm Bureau member Yolanda Heuser’s life, she found comfort and healing in a surprising source: jars upon jars of rich, delicious homemade apple butter.

As far back as she can remember, Yolanda Heuser’s mother and grandmother gardened, canned and made apple butter for their families. But Heuser never imagined herself carrying on that tradition – that is, until a couple of years ago.

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“My grandparents were born in the 1800s. My grandmother had 11 children in the heart of the Depression, and they just had to do what they had to do to survive. She used everything. When the apples fell, making apple butter was what you did to preserve something for your family,” Heuser says. “My father died when I was seven, and my mother raised us singlehandedly. She raised chickens and pigs and cows and had a big garden; that was just a part of our lives.

“But times change,” she continues. “It wasn’t something I intentionally set out to do just because I was the third generation.”

Actually, Heuser and her husband, Bud, agreed to make apple butter for the 2010 Homesteads Apple Festival in Crossville because someone asked them for help. The timing turned out to be providential.

Yolanda Heuser of Cumberland County, TN makes apple butter

“My mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2006, and she did OK for three years. But in November of 2009, she started getting really bad and had to go into a nursing home. It was devastating. It was like a death, and yet she was still here,” Heuser says.

Meanwhile, her own health began to decline, as she began to lose weight and became easily fatigued. Thinking it was just the stress of her mother’s illness, Heuser did not see a doctor until several months later when she developed severe pain in her upper back and found it difficult to breathe. Finally, after extensive testing, her doctor delivered some difficult news.

“The doctor looked at me and said, ‘You have got, more likely than not broncho-alveolar carcinoma. It is a genetic cancer; it is not environmentally induced. There’s nothing you’ve done to bring this on, and there’s no cure. You will not be taking chemotherapy, because it does not respond to chemo. You have to have part of your lung removed, and you have to have it done now,’ ” she recalls.

As she prepared for surgery, Heuser researched her condition. What she learned was grim indeed. The type of cancer doctors suspected she had was likely to come back, and more and more of her lung tissue would have to be removed, eventually requiring a lung transplant.

“In the meantime, we’re doing apple butter,” Heuser says. “But what started out as just a venture to help this lady at the apple festival in Crossville ended up saving my life. As I would do the things that I had seen my mom do, it was like she was standing right there beside me. As I would tighten the lids on those jars of apple butter, it was just like the way she did it. All those years of seeing her do all of her canning came back to me, just like second nature. It was just like my mama was there with me, guiding me through all of it, because of everything she had done and taught me. It was the most healing thing I’ve ever done. I know it sounds way out in left field, but it got me through.”

During surgery, Heuser’s doctors removed a tumor from her lung, but what they found was not the aggressive cancer they had seen on the scans. It was diagnosed as a “necrotizing granuloma,” a dead, benign tumor. Heuser calls it a miracle.

“God healed me,” she says. “I had lung cancer, and God healed me.”

Yolanda Heuser makes Apple Butter in Cumberland County

Because making apple butter was such a meaningful part of getting through that year of loss, grieving, sickness and healing, Heuser decided to keep it up. She attended a University of Tennessee Extension Service class at the Ellington Agricultural Center in Nashville and got her kitchen certified by the Tennessee Department of Agriculture in order to sell her apple butter commercially.

Although she created her own recipe, she honors her mother, Christine, with the name of her product: Ma Maw ’Teen’s Old Fashioned Apple Butter. And she honors her history by using traditional cooking methods.

Heuser and her husband buy their apples from a local orchard – eight bushels are required per “cooking.” Then they wash them, and, using a small peeler that hooks onto the kitchen table, they peel, core and slice the apples one by one. The apples, along with 20 pounds of sugar and a gallon of pure apple juice, go into a 15-gallon pot to cook down.

“My husband and I take turns, but you stand there with a huge paddle and you stir and you stir and you stir,” Heuser says. “It’s all manual; there’s nothing automatic about it.”

Then she adds her own secret blend of spices and continues cooking the mixture until it reaches the perfect consistency. It takes about eight hours to finish one batch, which makes between 80 and 88 pints of apple butter. In 2011, they made 10 batches and sold more than 900 jars at festivals around the state.

When it comes to comfort food, it’s hard to beat a slather of apple butter atop a steaming biscuit. For Yolanda Heuser, the comfort goes way beyond flavor. “Apple butter’s been good to me,” she says.

How to Buy Apple Butter

Ma Maw ’Teen’s Old Fashioned Apple Butter is not available in stores, but you can buy it – and see how it’s made – at the Homesteads Apple Festival in Crossville held annually in September the Cumberland Homesteads Historic District.

The Heusers also sell directly from their kitchen. In order to preserve the meaning and history of their craft and to keep from being overwhelmed by a large-volume business, they decided not to build a website. However, customers can call their office to arrange a time to buy direct from the pantry shelves. Contact Bud Heuser at (931) 484-7317. Tennessee Farm Bureau members can also buy Ma Maw ‘Teen’s Old Fashioned Apple Butter at the annual meeting on Dec. 7, 2014, in Franklin, Tennessee.

9 Comments

  1. Georgia Andrews says:

    Yolanda, what a wonderful story, I really enjoyed reading it and finding out all that happened. I knew some of the story, but not all. So this really helped me realize just all that you went through. You are one tuff lady. Will see you at the Apple Festival. Love Georgia

  2. Cindy Hutchison says:

    Yesterday I was preparing my first ever batch of Apple Butter. I snuk out long enough to get my mail. My Tn. Home & Farm came and I was thumbing through it ,there I ran across your story. I have just retuned home last weekend from an 8 week trip to North Carolina. I was taking care of my childhood friend since 7th grade. She had been diagnosed 4 months prior with an 7cm malignant tumor in her lung.( inoperatable) She went thru Chemo. and Radiation, when they had to pull her off. . Her Esophogus was shrunk to the size of a very small straw, and it was even difficult for her to swallow water. God has answered prayer though, her Esophogus has enlarged and she is able to eat aa hamburger, fried chicken, etc. She had gained 6 pounds when I left. But 2 weeks after my arrival she was at least maintaining her weight,now she is gaining and able to do things for herself. If she were not I would not be home right now, for I was there to help her as long as I was needed. God is a Marvelous God.! He is no respector of person. His will is for all to walk in devine health and to go to Heaven healthy, not sick. Your story was like a confirmation of healing to me for my friend Donna. Thank you so much for your sharing it with all to see. God Bless you, and your’s and may you walk in devine health.

  3. Yolanda Heuser says:

    This is a BIG weekend and week forth coming. We are ready to start our new batches of Apple Butter. We will have plenty of Apple Butter for sale in 2 weeks!

  4. David E Seabaugh says:

    I’m looking for a quality source of apple butter like my mother and her mother before her. Thank you, David E. Seabaugh

  5. Freda McNulty says:

    Hello,
    I found your site by searching for Apple Butter Recipes.
    Do you share your Apple Butter recipe?
    Thank you for your time and consideration in this matter.
    Sincerely,
    Freda McNulty

    • Samantha Lucas says:

      Yolanda Heuser She can not give out her Apple Butter Recipes She Said not going to tell any body From Samantha Lucas Mrs.Yolanda her back up helper

  6. Tammy Whitt says:

    I purchased your apple butter at Norton Shows in Gatlinburg, TN in November. I wanted you to know it is by far the best apple butter I have ever had the pleasure to enjoy. Keep up the great work. Thanks!!

  7. Mary T says:

    Hello,
    I found your site by searching for homemade applebutter. Do you by any chance take orders and ship? I am in Texas and would love to purchase at least 12 jars.

    Thank You for your time! All is appreciated!!!!

    • Jessy Yancey says:

      Hi Mary,

      We’re actually just a magazine/website that did an article on someone who makes apple butter. You can contact them directly at (931) 484-7317, or check out the list of links in the story under the section at the end that says “Where to Buy Apple Butter.” Hope this helps!

      Jessy Yancey
      editor, Tennessee Home & Farm

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