School: Baile Máirtín, Muine Beag

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1. Churning

   

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   We have a churn at home. Our churn is two and a half feet high and twenty one inches wide. The sides are round. It is about three years old. The churn, lid, and dash are three parts of the churn. There are no marks on the sides or bottom of the churn. We churn three times each week in Summer and once every week in Winter. My mother and sister usually do the churning. When strangers come in during it we ask them to help at the work, because there is an old saying that if strangers come in during churning they should help at the work or if not they would take the butter. The churning takes about three qrs. of an hour in Summer and half an hour in Winter. The churning is done by hand as it is a dash churn. The dash goes upwards and downwards. We know when the butter is made because the dash is clean of any bits of butter. People pour in hot water when the milk would not be buttering to make it the required temperature. My mother gets two butter hands and lifts the butter out of the churn into the butter tub. It is then washed a few

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   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

   Collector

   Teresa Dillon

   Gender

   Female

   Age

   14

   Address

   Ballymartin, Co. Carlow