School: Baile Mac Rabhartaigh (roll number 3978)

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1. Churning

   

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   We have a churn at home. It is two feet eight inches high. It is one foot four ins [inches?] wide at the top and one foot eight at the bottom. The sides are round. It is two years old.

   Butter is made three times a week in Summer and twice in Winter. The man of the house or the woman of the house usually does the churning.

   It takes an hour to churn. Some of the churning is done by hand and [sic] of it by foot. The most of the churn dashes are moved upwards and downwards and some of them are moved from side to side.

   The butter is taken off with a butter dish or with a collander [colander?]. When the woman of the house has the cows milking in the morning or in the evening she strains the milk first. She leaves the new milk in a crock for about twelve hours. The cream comes to the top of the milk. The cream is loosened from the sides of the crock with the first finger. Then the cream is poured into a larger crock. This is called skinning the milk.

   Every night and morning more cream is put into the crock until it is almost full. The milk is kept in the milk house or else the milk won’t thicken. When the large crock full of cream which is usually in about four days the cream is then ready for churning.

   

   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. activities
      1. economic activities
         1. agriculture (~2,659)
            1. butter and churns (~3,280)

   Language

   English

   Informant

   Mary Mc Guiney

   Gender

   Female

   Age

   10

   Address

   Ballynacarrick, Co. Donegal