School: Crury (roll number 3134)

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1. Churning

   

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   We have a churn at home. It is about three feet high and three feet in circumference. It is round in shape and is made of wood. There are iron hoops around it at an equal distance apart. These are for keeping the wood together and thus making the churn more firm
   Usually we churn once a week. If a person enters the house while we are churning he or she helps with the work. This is an old custom. It is considered unlucky to leave a house where churning is going on without helping with the work. It usually takes an hour to churn the milk as it is done by hand. When butter begins to gather on top of the milk it is a sign that the churning is nearly finished. Sometimes water is put into the milk. This is done to heat the milk and is usually added in winter as the weather is colder than in the Summer.
   When finished the butter is gathered into one corner of the churn with a strainer. It is then lifeten out and put into a clean dish. It is well washed with spring water several times and different salt is added to flavour and preserve the butter. It is quite soft by this time and has to be left in a dish of water to become fairly hard and ready for use. In this district buttermilk- which is the milk left after butter is taken off is used for baking bread. It is also given to calves

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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

   George Dorrian

   Gender

   Male

   Address

   Creevy, Co. Donegal