Apple Butter Makin' Days

Apple Butter Makin' Days has been hosted on the Lawrence County courthouse square in Mount Vernon each October since 1967 and draws an estimated 100,000 visitors. Apple butter is cooked by century-old methods in huge copper kettles, many more than 100 years old, over open fires on the southeast lawn and stirred with long wooden paddles until sugar and spices go in near the end of a 12-hour cook. The weekend also brings 450-plus craft, food, and KidZone vendors, weiner dog races in Spirit of '76 park, and a parade the chamber calls the largest in southwest Missouri. Nonprofit booths sell kettle corn, apple dumplings, caramel apples, and the SWMO Cattlemen's steak sandwich.

Our take: Get to the southeast courthouse lawn while the copper kettles are still stirring if the apple butter is why you came.