School: Cnuicín na hAbhann

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1. How We Used to Make Butter and Fill Firkins

   

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   When I was young I remember to see my mother filling firkins of butter. At that time we used to lodge our milk in pans or "Keelers," and it used be left there for a day and a night until the cream would rise.Then my mother used get a skimmer in the morning and skim off the cream into the cream tub. She used to do this every morning for a week until she'd have the cream tub full, or as much as she thought would make butter enough to fill the firkin.

   Some people who would only have five or six cows would join together, two or three of them, and fill a firkin between them. They'd name a day and they would all churn their cream early in the morning. They'd all measure their own amounts in gallons or buckets and take it to the house of the woman who was filling the firkin.

   Then all the butter would be put into a big tub and a good share of salt would

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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

   Informant

   Nora O Connor

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Knockrower West, Co. Kerry