School: Newtownmount Kennedy
- Location:
- Newtown Mountkennedy, Co. Wicklow
- Teacher: Ida Hutchinson
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0927, Page 166
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- XML School: Newtownmount Kennedy
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- XML “Churning”
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- We have a churn at home. It is about 4 feet in height and 2 feet wide at the top and bottom. The different parts are: the lid, the handle, the stopper and the stand.
Butter is made once a week in winter and twice a week in summer. The workmen do the churning and stranger who come in give a hand with it because it is an old superstition that if they did not do so they would take the butter with them. Churning takes about an hour, it is done by hand as it is an end-over-end one. People know when the butter is made when small particles of butter remain on the lid. Water is put into it when the butter is nearly made to bring it to the right temperature. Before the butter is lifted out the butter-milk is first taken out and salted many times, first to remove the remaining butter-milk and then to flavour the butter.
