School: Óméith (roll number 3001)
- Location:
- Omeath, Co. Louth
- Teacher: D. Ó Cuilinn
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0657, Page 267
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- XML School: Óméith
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- XML “Churn”
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- (continued from previous page)light to see if there are little dots of butter in the milk. If these are in it is a sign that it is broken. Strangers who come in during the churning help also. They usually say "God Bless the work". Before the start churning the make the sign of the cross three times over the milk.
Every week churning is done in Summer and in Winter sometimes only every three weeks. During the frosty weather the milk is very hard to get gathered, sometimes they had to put the crocks to the fire to try to gather it for churning. They lift the butter off with their hands and put it in a wooden dish. They put cold water in the dish and the butter is mixed twice till all the milk is out of the butter. Then they put the salt in and then they got a knife and put it through the butter and the hairs taken out.
The buttermilk is used for drinking, for calves and for making porridge. The man that made this churn was called Belton who lived in Newry.
