Growing Up PA Dutch | Making Apple Butter in a 19th-Century Copper Kettle

Jean (Geissinger) Schneck was born in 1931 to Mennonite parents who owned an 88-acre farm in Zionsville, Pennsylvania. In many ways, Jean grew up living a 19th-century lifestyle. (Electric lines didn't reach their farm in southern Lehigh County until 1945.) This lifestyle included making apple butter in a large copper kettle in their "old kitchen," using a cast-iron cookstove set inside a hearth. In this video, Jean, age 92, describes what it was like to make a batch of apple butter in the 1940s on their farm. The Geissinger's copper kettle was sold at their household auction in 1967. In 2023, Jean's daughter, Darlene, bought it back from the person who purchased it in 1967. Jean and her sister, Grace, were reunited with the kettle after more than 50 years!

[@lisabowers2416]

I had no idea you were a Geissinger. I grew up on Geissinger Road. Right up the street from the farm. Love this story and the memories. Thanks for sharing.

[@pghdew6846]

Very nice! Thank you!

[@gizmo1154]

Darlene - waiting for the bonus video - Make a batch to share! Thanks for making these! Also great to see you and the family in the videos. So many memories!

[@darleneschneck]

Haha! I’ve got it now in my condo, but there’s no old-fashioned cookstove in sight! It will need another owner who is more cooking-adventurous than me! Thanks for your kind comments ❤️

[@CMarie0510]

Thank you for sharing this! What great memories. By the way, Nathan Kauffman is my 3rd great grandfather on my mothers side. Which means your family bought my family's farm! What a neat history!

[@darleneschneck]

That is so neat!! Nice to meet you! I looked back at the deeds, and discovered that Nathan bought this farm and 80 acres in April 1864, and then sold off 45 acres along with the house and outbuildings in November of that year to Abraham Geissinger, my ancestor. So Nathan and his family never actually lived at this farm. Nathan bought the original 80 acre farm from a Stahl family who had lived there. Do you happen to know where Nathan lived? It must have been close by. I found him buried in a small cemetery at a church nearby that I hadn't heard of before. He apparently left the Mennonite church.

[@donnamusselman3191]

Thanks for putting out theses videos. This was all very interesting. I had no idea apple butter could keep that long. Beautiful kettle

[@darleneschneck]

I didn’t know that either until I made this video! And you have a brand of applesauce named after you, which is my favorite!!

[@gdsmith4]

We also make apple butter ❤ We are now 5th generation makers. So wish I could do this with my parents, but they are both gone. Thanks for sharing your family history ❤

[@marjoriereagan5604]

I really enjoyed this video! I love that your mom gets so excited about her childhood. Because I grew up in Emmaus I think I know where that farm is!! Great kettle. Great video!

[@darleneschneck]

Glad you enjoyed and recognized it!! The farmland is in a conservation easement and so it still looks pretty much the same around there!

[@marjoriereagan5604]

That’s terrific. Good to hear!

[@chriswitmer4446]

Copper kettles (non-ferrous metals) were essential. Iron kettles are not acceptable for apple butter, as the acids in the apples react negatively with iron and taint the product.

[@chriswitmer4446]

The homemade 'cottage cheese' she is talking about (Schmearkees) is actually different than commercial cottage cheese, which you use when you can't get real Schmearkees. Both, however, are kurd products.