It’s too windy to work outside this afternoon. I tried to plant garden, but kept loosing my balance because the wind was blowing so hard! So, I ended up in the house, not knowing what to do because my plans weren’t working out. I know, that’s a weird situation for a mother of several to be in. Yes, there are lots of things I should be doing, but when you have your mind fixed in one direction, and that direction changes, it takes awhile to redirect. Anyway, I finally remembered that I needed to make butter. Then, when I was most of the way through the process, I decided this might make a half-decent topic for a blog post, so you get pictures starting partway through. I love that cow of ours–she gives us so much!
I started with all these jars full of cream. Sometime this morning or early afternoon I pulled them out of the fridge and put some yogurt in them, then left them on the table to warm up.
Step 1: Pour 4 cups of cream in the blender jar.
With our cream and my blender, I run it at 1 till the cream whips.
The cream whips so thickly that I have to break the airlock.
Whipped cream!
Then, I pulse it on and off for several minutes, till the butter starts forming. Otherwise, it will just airlock again.
Once the butter is separating, it won’t airlock anymore, so I run it on 3 for another minute or so, till the butter and buttermilk are separated.
I press the butter to one side and pour off the buttermilk, then scoop the butter out. Time elapsed since putting cream in the blender? About 2-3 minutes!
Time to wash the butter. If I have a smaller batch, I can use the butter paddle; with this size batch it’s easier to use my hands.
First, I press out all the buttermilk I can.
Then, run water in and work it around and through the butter (remember, oil and water don’t mix) to get the rest of the buttermilk rinsed out.
Good enough–this is the fourth rinse.
Add salt; I think I used about 2 Tablespoons here.
Work the salt through.
Put it in a container!
The final results–a quart and a half of buttermilk to make into biscuits, scones, pancakes, etc, and about 5 pounds of delicious, cultured, Jersey butter!
And, one more reason to love the cow–the cheese! As you can see, it’s popular for snacks.
What do you buy in store and what do you make yourself?
Have a good day!
Sandra
I make all I can. We do buy a few canned things–mackerel, baked beans, corn, coconut cream, and also flour, sugar, salt. I get what I can in bulk, through a friend who buys from a company that supplies bulk food stores. We basically grow most of the vegetables we eat, and most of our meat (some comes from where my husband works), and pick a lot of fruit that grows wild. Nearly all our dairy products come from the cow, although I buy cheese on sale a few times a year. A lot of our meat comes from animals raised on the cow’s milk–either calves or lambs. We also butcher chickens that people give us, and raise our own eggs, although lately we’ve been buying from a lady in the area who has extras, because our boys love to eat eggs and we don’t have enough at the moment. Does that answer your question?
Yes 😉
Thank you very much!
As I think I have mentioned before it is prohibited to homeschool here in Sweden and almost every kid goes to kindergarten when turning one.
Sandra