Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1940-09-26
MONTGOMERY
Nl SIDELICHTS
By ELSIE WHITE HAINEs

CHANGING thru our scrap book
today, we suddenly realized that
last week this column marked its
!, first anniversary-yes. you have
been reading Montgomery Side
lights for a year! Or have you?
; Started more by accident, than
by design, when we one day jotted
down some of the interesting
+. things we had seen and heard
while rambling around the County
in the interests of the circulation
of THE SENTINEI-you all have
made it easy for US to continue it
when you say or write-I liked
your column on SO and so, but did
you know-you start a train of
thought that results in another
: column.
; Did we not get a thrill last
week when a radio entertainer on
nationwide hook-up sought per-
, mission to dramatic our little
story of "The Tombstone Without
a Grave" and a big city daily sent
: out photographers to illustrate a
story we happened upon?
We have been accused" by one
of our Potomac friends, of making
the places we tell you about so
attractive, and the people of whom
we write, sound so beautiful and
happy-well, we feel that there
are plenty folks to tell of the
unlovely spots on this earth-of
war-disease-and unhappiness-
so we try to pass on to you only
those incidents that have rosy
tint.
One bright day last week we
donned pair of dark glasses and
spent an hour lounging and doz-
ing in the yard-opening an eye
Ysleepily, we saw dark clouds roll
ing around, and in the absent
minded fashion that our family
and friends view with amusement
and despair-and causes strangers
to wonder if we are "teched", we
> remarked: "Why it is going to
storm!" A chuckle from the
neighbor who was sharing our
I. leisure, caused us to sit up and
pull off the glasses, and there was
a blue sky with harmless white
: clouds rolling around! See what
we mean?
A Scottish man of letters once
said: "All I ask of any of my
literature isis it interesting?
, Is it aromatic? Does it give off
' that mixture of sweetness and
> acid that is the fragrance of the
mind?"
Which reminds US to tell you
that the aromatic breezes you are
apt to encounter as you drive
! around upper Montgomery during
these early Autumn days-spicy-
woodsy-slightly smoky Il is very
likely apple butter in the making.
At Rolling Knoll Farm, the
home of Mr.. and Mrs. McKendree
Walker, their son, Ralph, and his
wife, Lorraine Watkins Walker,
on the Goshen Road, apple butter
is made in the old-fashioned man.
ner, forty gallons at the time!
The apples are peeled and cut
the day before the making
instead of the apple pairing parties
of olden times, when the neigh
bors came in to help-a mechani-
cal parer is used, but that is the
only modern note-for equipment
and recipe are the same that has
been used for generations!
A huge copper kettle, that holds
forty gallons of the finished prod
uct, is put over an outdoor fire
at six o'clock in the morning with
a few apples in a little water
some use cider--but not the Walk
ers-and more apples are added
from time to time, until the pot
is full-now this is boiled all day
very slowly, and constantly
stirred by Mr.. Walker and "the
boys" with a special "stirrer."
About four in the afternoon,
they began to add sugar-until
they have put in one hundred
pounds! With the last twenty
five pounds of sugar, one and one
half pounds of all-spice is thor
oughly mixed-and it is cooked
at least one hour after this last
addition-so it is well on to sever
o'clock before the cooking ceases
We loved the way Mrs. Walker
~ Al - l. l..