School: Culdaff
- Location:
- Culdaff, Co. Donegal
- Teacher: Ailís Eibhlín de Brún
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 1123, Page 046
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- XML School: Culdaff
- XML Page 046
- XML “The Churn”
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- We have a churn at home. It is three feet high, and one foot eight inches wide at the top, and one foot and a half at the bottom. It is only six months old, and there are not any marks on either the sides or the bottom. There are five different parts in the churn, namely; the sides, the crib, the bottom, the lid, and the staff.
The regularity of churning in the Winter depends chiefly on the amount of milk the cows produce. The milk is usually scarcer in Winter than in Summer, therefore twice in the week is as often as one churns. In Summer one can churn three or perhaps four times in the week.
If strangers come in during the process they do not help in the work, but say, "good luck to the work", because the people in olden days were very superstitious, and they always believed that people could "blink" the milk, and so this custom is still carried out. Likewise it is said, if they come in during the time of milking.
Our churning is done by hand, and the churn dash is always moved upwards and downwards. If the milk gets cold more hot water is poured in to bring it to the right temperature. It takes three-quarters or perhaps an hour to complete the work, and then the(continues on next page)
