A Collection with Ap-peel:
Apple peelers, slicers and corers
By Dianne L. Beetler
Decades ago, almost every Midwestern farm had an orchard, or at least a few apple trees. Today, most of those fruit trees have disappeared, but the tools used to preserve the apples have become collectibles.
Raymond and Vertie Carlson, Ottawa, Ill., have been collecting apple peelers, apple corers and apple slicers for more than 20 years. They now have 54 different items.
"It's getting to the point now where you almost have to get them from other collectors," said Raymond. "It's hard to find something you don't already have."
In 1973, the Carlsons had stopped at an antique store in Wisconsin, and Raymond asked the proprietor if she had any apple peelers in stock. Luckily, she had just bought one, and Raymond bought it from her. He Soaked and scrubbed the peeler to get it in usable condition, and that's when he noticed a wire holding the peeler together.
That wire brought back an unhappy memory. When Raymond was a child, his parents had borrowed a neighbor's apple peeler. While carrying it, Raymond stumbled and fell, and it cracked. His Dad wired the peeler back together. It was later sold at an auction in 1928, but Raymond, now 82, is convinced he now owns that very peeler that had moved just "50 miles down the road" in the following years.
The Carlsons' first experience cooking apple butter, and talking to people about the old-fashioned task, was so successful that they continue to give demonstrations at about five folk and harvest festivals each year. They also give talks at nursing homes and schools.
In 1988, when they cooked apple butter at the Illinois
State Fair, they had a distinguished audience: President and Mrs. Bush observed the process, and sampled the Carlsons' apple butter.
For hygiene reasons, the Carlsons don't give samples of the apple butter they cook on-site, but they do offer samples of their home-cooked apple butter.