Making Butter

When we lived in Waycross I was fortunate to be a part of a food co-op where I ordered everything online (from dairy to produce to dry goods to meat) and drove an hour and 20 minutes to go and pick it up. I did this once a month. It was quite an undertaking, but well worth it to me. I saved significantly on groceries and it was almost all organic. It would be crazy when we got home to unload and figure out a place to store 16 gallons of milk! Along with this milk, I would occasionally splurge and buy a pint or so of cream.

We looked up how to make your own butter. For some reason I thought it was some sort of complicated ordeal when in reality it is the easiest thing ever. Especially if you have a mixer. Maybe not so easy on the arms if you decide to churn it yourself. Cream can be expensive, unless you have your own cow :)  I wish. So, this may be something you decide to do when you can sacrifice in another area to provide the couple extra bucks to purchase some cream and give it a shot for yourself. The results are very tasty, sweet butter and some great buttermilk for baking.

This is great to do with the kiddos. We have split the cream up and poured into little tiny jars and let each kid shake away. They will think that nothing is ever going to happen, but after a few minutes the cream will thicken. A few more minutes and all of a sudden the cream will separate and wahlah....they will be excited that they actually made their own butter!

I have opted out of the sore arm from shaking butter all day and used my electric mixer. It takes about 10 minutes on a medium high speed before the magic of separation begins. You will have to rinse the butter carefully with very cold water and squeeze all buttermilk out until it is clear. This will keep the butter from going bad too quickly. Make sure you reserve the other liquid, which is your buttermilk, and save it for any recipe that calls for milk.

It is great on freshly baked bread or whole wheat toast!

Thankful for simple homesteading techniques like making your own butter...something that those who have gone before us did all the time,

Nichole