Apple butter provides fall treat to community

The recipe is from the grandmother of the former director's secretary.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
YOUNGSTOWN -- The Apple Butter Festival started at Park Vista Retirement Community as a way to establish an identity for the center and 32 years later it's still going strong.
Helen Stambaugh, 85, and now a Park Vista resident, came up with the idea for the festival as the center's executive director in 1969.
"We had six buildings here and they all had an identity," she said. "We needed some identity for our building."
They use the recipe of the grandmother of Stambaugh's former secretary.
The secretary, Joyce Leff, explained how her grandmother cooked the fall treat outside in a copper kettle.
And the idea was born.
This year's festival included the Grotto Clowns, Rocky Chirchiglia Band and the Castle County Cloggers.
"It's something nice for the community and for the North Side," said Denise Creatore, Park Vista activities director and housing manager.
Mixture process
They started about 7:30 a.m. Saturday with apple cider in a 35-gallon copper kettle, cooking over an open flame in the rear of the retirement building.
When the mixture begins to thicken, you add cinnamon, Stambaugh explained. It must be stirred constantly with a paddle to keep the butter from scorching on the bottom of the kettle. Volunteers and Park Vista staff take turns stirring.
The mixture makes about 30 gallons of apple butter.
"It takes all day," Stambaugh said, adding that the treat would be done in time for her to attend Saturday night's Youngstown State University football game.
YSU's Stambaugh Stadium is named for her late husband, Arnold D. Stambaugh, a business man and philanthropist.
Jars of the sweetened and unsweetened versions of the apple butter will be available for sale until it runs out.
Members of the YSU women's basketball team took their turns with the stirring paddle.
Team veterans know the drill of moving the paddle through the whole pot, taking care that the bottom doesn't scorch.
"When there's a new player on the team, they tell them," Stambaugh said. "I don't even have to mention it."
denise_dick@vindy.com