School: Inch, Borris

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1. Churning

   

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   We have a churn at home. It is about four feet in height and about two feet wide. The sides are round. It is about eight or nine years old. On the bottom of the churn there is a mark. This is a square piece of iron and where it was made is written on it.

   The butter is made once a week in Winter and sometimes twice a week in Summer. My mother makes the churn. When strangers come into the dairy while a person is churning they always churn a while. The old people say if a person came into the dairy and did not churn that they would take the luck of your butter from you.

   It takes about half an hour to churn the milk. People can know when the butter is made by a glass that is in the lid of the churn. While this glass is covered with bits of butter the milk is not churned and when it is clean it is churned. Water is often poured into the milk to make it warm so that it would churn quickly.

   There are two kinds of churns a dash churn and a barrel churn. The churning is always done by hand. When churning with a dash churn the dash is always kept moved up and down and

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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

   Josie Fanning

   Gender

   Male

   Address

   Ballyroughan Little, Co. Carlow

   Informant

   Owen Foley

   Gender

   Male

   Address

   Gowlin, Co. Carlow