School: Irishtown
- Location:
- Milltown, Co. Westmeath
- Teacher: Margaret McNally
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- Old Crafts
Churning
The people of this district were noted for making butter. The grass around here is very good for dairy cows/
They used to churn the milk with a dash churn. When they would have it churned they would put it on a trencher and and make it with a platter. When they had it made they would put it into a firkin and weighed with a homemade scales. They used to make the scales with two square pieces of wood. Then they used to get a long piece of board and put three holes in it one in the middle and one hole each side. The used put a hole in each corner of the square piece of board also.
They used to put twine from the two square pieces of wood to the one that was on the top. For weights they used to have balls of yellow clay baked and weighed in the shop. The firkin used be buried in the ground until the butter would ripen
It is said that there is a lot of butter hidden round our place.
Told to me by my father aged 50 years
Date 5th June 1938- Collector
- Eileen Dalton
- Gender
- Female
- Age
- 13
- Address
- Rathduff, Co. Westmeath