Sweet Harvest Homestead

Last weekend, my sweetheart and I drove over to Blowing Rock and had lunch at one of our favorite restaurants, a British styled pub called Sixpence.  Have you ever been there?  Great food & atmosphere! On our way home, we picked up a half bushel of mountain apples and a bag of chestnuts.  Chinquapin; I believe that is what the old timers called the type of chestnuts we bought.  They will be a tasty snack after we roast them. The variety of apples that I purchased was Winesap, and I was very busy this week making them into apple butter.  Have you ever made apple butter?  It is sinfully easy.  Apple Butter doesn't have butter in it; it get's its name from the smooth texture that occurs after a lengthy cooking time.  The old fashioned way of making apple butter involved cooking it outdoors over an open fire and usually in a copper pot.  I couldn't  manage to procure a copper pot without shelling out a ton of cash for it, so I opted for an easier method and a