The Red Flannel Rag

They both answered my question. Uncle Shirley jumped right in with his answer.

“We made a combination of whiskey and brandy depending on what was available. For

instance, if the women had canned a lot of fruit and it spoiled, we would take that, put in

into a barrel, add sugar and yeast, and let it ferment into a wine that would be similar to

apple cider. We distilled this wine into a brandy. Like I say, I’ve made it out of p eaches

and grapes. We used to gather wild grapes. There used to be a lot of them. What we

made depended on what was available at the least cost.”

My daddy added, “When I was a boy there was an awful lot of peach brandy made

because the older people in the community had small peach orchards around over the

mountain tops. I can stand here on the porch and show you the sites of at least four

orchards. We didn’t have the bugs and beetles we have now. You could grow beautiful

peaches. Right up the hill here Martin Conley had a peach orchard and grew some of

the most beautiful peaces I ever saw. He never had to spray.”

Uncle Shirley joined in, “A lot of people just liked brandy. Now when we sold

brandy we had to charge more than we charged for whiskey. We sold our brandy a

little higher than we did our grain whiskey because it was harder to make and you didn’t

get as much return for your sugar. The ingredients took longer to ferment and it just

cost us more. So, we had to charge a little more for it.”

I asked Uncle Shirley if whiskey was good for other uses besides drinking. He

said, “Oh yeah, it was used a lot for medication and as a stimulant for livestock. If you

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