The Red Flannel Rag

sometimes used wheat if rye and corn were not available. “You can make whiskey from

anything that has an acid —any berry or fruit. The only fruit that won’t make is

blueberries, because they don’t have no acid, and they will not ferment. You can make it

out of potatoes, sweet potatoes, parsnips, tomatoes, but anything you make with a fruit

is classed as a brandy.”

Small-scale moonshiners made their talents available for special orders from

their customers. Uncle Shirley told me, “One time there was a guy who run a building

supply company in Harrisonburg. He had come onto a recipe whereby he took a pint of

sliced peaches to a half pint of moonshine, and a half pint of sugar. He canned this

mixture in quart jars. I don’t know what his idea was but what happened is he ended up

with practically a quart of sugar because, over time, this had turned to sugar just as

preserves or honey will. Well, this man came to me after I was workin’ for myself and

asked me if I couldn’t take this stuff, put it in a barrel and dilute it, and make him peach

brandy out of it — which I did. Of course, he paid well. He furnished all the ingredients

and paid us good for makin’ for him.”

Uncle Jim told me that people who drank moonshine preferred to buy from the

small- scale moonshiner. “We mostly made for our own consumption, so we kept our

whiskey clean and ended up with the be st drinkin’ whiskey in Hopkins Gap. It didn’t

take long for customers to figure this out, so they started buying their drinkin’ whiskey

straight from the man who made it.”

198