School: Gurteen (roll number 586)
- Location:
- Gurteen, Co. Tipperary
- Teacher: Richard B. Bracken
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0530, Page 300K
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- XML School: Gurteen
- XML Page 300K
- XML “Churning”
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- We have a churn at home. It is about three feet high and about one and a half feet wide. The sides are round in shape. It is about eighteen years old. The various parts are the dashes, the handle and the lid. There is no mark on the sides or bottom of our churn. The butter is made twice a week in the Summer and once a week in Winter. In Summer the weather is much warmer than in Winter and cream gets ripe much quicker therefore it is necessary to churn twice a week. My mother does the churning at home. If strangers come in during the process it is a custom with them to help because in bygone days butter used to be taken by some evil power. Churning takes about half an hour and is done by hand. When the churning is done butter gathers on the dash. Water is poured in to gather the butter. The butter is lifted out by wooden hands and put into a basin. It is washed with spring water, salted, and put into rolls. Buttermilk is used for making bread and some people take a drink of it immediately after churning.(continues on next page)
- Informant
- James King
- Gender
- Male
- Age
- 70
- Address
- Lord's Park, Co. Tipperary
