Tim Zeigler of Lodi brought his “engines” from the early 20th century to the Chatham Apple Butter Festival on Sunday afternoon. Zeigler has been collecting the engines for about eight years and has 15 altogether. (Photo by Lisa Hlavinka, The Gazette.)
CHATHAM — Even Johnny Appleseed would have been impressed to see the amount of apples and apple butter at the Chatham Apple Butter Festival. He might have also been impressed to see antiques almost as old as the legend himself.
Three large vats of apple butter were cooked on Saturday and Sunday at the Apple Butter Festival at the Chatham Veterans of Foreign Wars. Hall, 6299 Avon Lake Road.
Each vat is filled with more than 30 gallons of apples from local orchards, along with a little apple cider, Leonard Lance said.
The vats simmer for about eight hours and are stirred frequently to prevent the bottom from burning. When finished, about 12 gallons of apple butter comes out of each vat, Lance said.
The idea for the Apple Butter Festival began about 30 years ago with one person wanting to make apple butter with a few friends to help.
“It just kept growing and growing,” Lance, who has lived in the township all 82 years of his life, said.
Aside from vendors and bake sales, others brought historical objects to display that were much older than the festival itself. Tim Zeigler of Lodi brought three antique engines that date from about 1900 to 1930.
Explanations of what they are used for can be vague, he said, because the engines often did not have a specific use.
“Usually the first question I get asked is, ‘well, what is it?’” Zeigler said.
In fact, the engines, made up of a series of axels and pulleys and mostly powered by gasoline and kerosene, could be used on farms for anything from grinding corn to cutting trees, he said.
“Sometimes they were hooked up with a buzz saw to cut trees for fire wood,” Zeigler said.
The engines Zeigler brought to the Apple Butter Festival were between 1.5 and 3 horsepower. He has been collecting them for about eight years and has 15 engines total.
Nearby, Frannie Grim of Chatham brought a trailer full of old objects he wanted to share with youngsters at the festival. The trailer was stacked with old farm tools dating from about 1880 to 1950, including an old corn cutter blade that was strapped to a person’s leg to cut corn stalks.
“You strap it to your leg, and they would kick the corn stalk, and the corn falls over and you catch it, then tie it into bundles,” Grim said.
He has too many objects to count, from hundreds of old wrenches to rusty locks and even an antique sausage stuffer.
Grim plainly calls his collection of objects “stuff”, and he mostly gets his antiques from auctions and flea markets.
“A lot of people collect certain things,” he said. “I collect ‘stuff.’ ”
Contact Lisa Hlavinka at (330) 721-4048 or lhlavinka@ohio.net.
