School: Oldtown (roll number 7470)
- Location:
- Oldtown, Co. Dublin
- Teacher: M. Ní Ruanaidhe
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0787, Page 59
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- Churning. October 24th 1938.
We have a churn at home. It is a small one. It is about two feet high, and it is two feet wide at the bottom and one foot wide at the top.
It consists of a lid dash, and a handle. We churn twice a week in Winter, and three times in Summer. The churn is scalded and it is left to dry. Then it is rinsed with cold water. Then the cream is put into the churn, and the lid is put on. A little water nearly boiling is put into the churn in the Winter to make it churn quicker. It is taken out of the churn when little bits of butter begin to swim on top of the buttermilk.
Then the buttermilk is taken out, it is given yo the calves or it is kept for making bread. Sometimes people wash their faces in it. The butter is taken out with a butter plate, and it is put into the wooden butter dish. The water is bruised out of it by the butter pats. Then it is made into rolls and it is put into a butter plate if it is hard, but if it is soft it is left in the butter dish, and water is put on it. Before it is made into rolls salt is mixed with it.
There are also barrel churns. The various parts of them are the lid, the barrel, handle, and stand. The height of it including stand and barrel is fourty-four inches. The width of the churn at the top is fifteen inches and fourteen inches at(continues on next page)
