In many families stories are told and retold. Listeners become familiar with the topic and add their own thoughts. Recording stories in written or electronic forms can preserve details. A researcher can formulate questions before an interview. This will provide for adequate coverage, encourage new thoughts, and also allow the interviewer to use information from previous sharing times to help a storyteller build upon what was already told.

Examine the questions related to the topic of apples. Note that it was not possible to obtain answers to all questions at this point in time. Library research or examination of primary resources may help answer some questions in the future. Abbreviations and quick notes later became part of a written narrative. Find places where the written notes have been placed in the story. The first draft can be handwritten or typed. As time passes, a series of revisions help create a written product that tells the story for the same audience as well as new readers and listeners.

1. Choose a topic that is of interest to you. Read about the topic.

2. Create a cognitive map about various aspects related to the topic.

3. Use the cognitive map to create questions that would be appropriate to ask in an oral interview. Type the questions and leave sufficient space for answers.

4. Locate a person or persons who have knowledge about the topic. Share your purpose for the interview and obtain permission to talk with and record the stories shared.

5. Determine the best way or ways for recording the information. Prepare the needed materials.

6. Arrange the environment so that a relaxed conversation can take place. Describe the interview procedure to the person or persons involved. Enjoy listening, talking, and recording.

7. Examine notes taken soon after the interview. Write a rough draft that tells the story about what has been learned.

8. Continue to research the topic. Write and rewrite the material until it meets the needs of the audience with which the material is to be shared.

There were lots of fresh apples as Gustav Janke had planted a large apple orchard. Some of the trees remain to this day. There were Snow Apples, Duchess, Red Astrachan, Yellow Transparents, a Winter Russet (Gelbe Sussapfel), and Wolf River apples. Like the early settlers, apples also came from many places. The Duchess originated in Surrey, England, around 1800. The Red Astrachan had come from Russia. The Wolf River was first raised by

W. A. Springer near Wolf River, in Fremont County, Wisconsin. Its existence was first recorded in 1875. Gustav Janke was always ready to try new things. Trees in his orchard were planted only a decade or two after the time when the Wolf River Apple was first recorded. Gustav grafted various apples onto good rootstocks. Some trees therefore bore more than one type of apple.

The trees were planted far enough apart so horses and a mower could be used to cut the grass. Trees were trimmed so nothing would catch on the machinery.

Not a lot of apples had to be preserved because fresh ones were available during much of the winter. They were eaten raw as well as cooked, baked, dried, and canned. A whole pan full of cored, baked apples with brown sugar and cinnamon hot from the oven tasted very good. Crab apples were preserved with sugar and canned.

Amanda Janke Kuse remembered picking up forty sacks of apples for cider. The less perfect ones were put into pails and thrown over the fence for the eager cows. Apples were taken by the wagonload to the cider mill at Boltenville near Waubeka. Grapes were also taken along. On the return trip there were barrels of apple juice and one of grape juice.

Big, full-sized barrels were used to store the cider. They were larger than a keg. The barrels were purchased but family members do not remember how they were made or where they were obtained. Sometimes there were as many as three barrels in the basement. Two were for cider and one for wine. Fifty pounds of sugar were added to each barrel of apple juice. To add the sugar, part of the apple juice had to be siphoned out through a hole in the top of the barrel. That juice was used to dissolve sugar in a kettle. It was then poured back into the barrel through the hole. A preservative, probably obtained at the cider press, was sometimes added. Finally the container was corked.

There was hard cider and sweet cider. Hard cider had no sugar added. At first it was regular apple juice but then it fermented into hard cider or vinegar. Sweet cider had sugar added and therefore stayed sweet and kept until the next year.

Snow apples were juicier than most of the others and therefore made the best cider. Other apples were mixed with this variety.

Gustav Janke had cider every day for breakfast and at other times when he was thirsty. It was served in a medium sized glass.

Apples were dried in the sun. They were covered with cheesecloth. Apples were also hung on a string to dry. Dried apples were stewed. Frugal housewives, with only a few apple trees, probably cooked the peels, squeezed out the juice through a cloth sack, and made jelly from that juice. Only a few dried apples were made because so many fresh winter apples were stored in barrels in the cellar. The dried apples were hung in a cloth sack in the dark, dry attic storeroom.

They were not served with dried prunes but simply stewed with sugar. Families like the Jankes had many apple trees and shared their peels and less perfect apples with livestock.

Bultitude, J. (1983). Apples: A guide to the identification of international varieties. Seattle: University of Washington Press.