School: Mohill (B.) (roll number 12415)
- Location:
- Mohill, Co. Leitrim
- Teacher: Francis Flynn
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0215, Page 039
Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.
See copyright details.
DownloadOpen data
Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
- XML School: Mohill (B.)
- XML Page 039
- XML “Churning”
Note: We will soon deprecate our XML Application Programming Interface and a new, comprehensive JSON API will be made available. Keep an eye on our website for further details.
On this page
- (continued from previous page)quantity and heat of the water used in churning are regulated by the weather. In Spring and Autumn you use tepid water before you begin to churn, and again when you are churning about ten or fifteen minutes, while in Summer you use all cold water. People usually churn twice weekly, and this is done by the women of the house. If strangers call in during the churning they are expected to "take a brash", as it is believed if they do not, the butter will not gather on the milk. A small churning takes about half an hour to do, and when the weather is cold it takes even longer. When you put the second water on it you will see little specks of butter and this is called "breaking". Then when you churn for a bit longer you put on drops of cold water to "gather" it, and when the butter is about the size of peas and all together on the top of the churn you know it is done. There is also another churn with a winding handle used by most townspeople. You can churn from a gallon of milk upwards in it, and this quantity would not be seen in the large barrel churns, and some people churn in a creamery can.
- Collector
- Leo Kenny
- Gender
- Male
