For more than three decades, Zollicoffer Lodge No. 444 in Bluff City, Tennessee has made and sold homemade apple butter to raise money for local students. Every dollar raised is given out each year as college scholarships. Members of King Lodge are proud to roll up our sleeves and help our neighbors with this tradition every year.
From orchard to jar
Making apple butter the old-fashioned way takes a lot of hands. Each fall the project starts with a trailer load of fresh apples:
- Wash and core. The apples go to the kitchen at the Ron Ramsey Agricultural Center, where volunteers wash and core them.
- Cook and can. From there they travel to the cannery in Castlewood, Virginia, where they are slowly cooked down and canned into Zollicoffer Lodge’s well-known apple butter.
- Sell. The jars are sold to the community, and the proceeds fund the scholarships.
Lodges working together
Zollicoffer Lodge leads the project, with help from Brothers of King Lodge No. 461 and Johnson Lodge No. 274. King Lodge members assist with both making and selling the apple butter. It’s a hard day’s work and a great day of fellowship, and it shows what Masonic charity looks like when lodges pull together. Read the story from one of our apple butter days.
How you can help
- Buy a jar when the apple butter goes on sale each fall. Every jar supports a student.
- Lend a hand on washing, coring or canning day.
Use the Volunteer button to send us a message, and we’ll let you know when this year’s apple butter is ready.
