Apple butter makers at the festival include Senior Life Services and the Stotler family. The winner of the apple butter tasting competition is announced from the bandstand early Saturday afternoon.

The ingredients for the apple butter are simple. Bushels of apples (10-12 for a standard 40 gallon kettle) are peeled and quartered in a process called snitting. They are stewed in cider and stirred continuously for nearly eight hours. Sugar is added, and spices too. Cinnamon and cloves in either oil or powdered form are the favorite tastes. Every group has one person who decides the amount and taste to add. Once the butter is thick enough to stick to an upside down saucer, the butter is done and ready to be canned. The best task waits for last-cleaning the remnants of butter from the insides of the copper kettles with fresh baked bread.

What to do with apple butter. Eat it on just about anything from bread to crackers. In the middle of a cold winter day, it's perfect taste of fall harvests.

More apple treats. Sweet, tangy apple cider is pressed on the spot at the festival by the Berkeley Springs Lions Club with a turn-of-the-century putt-putt engine. Buy it by the cup or the gallon from the Lions or half-a-dozen other vendors.

For more information call or write the Apple Butter Festival at: