School: Eachroim (roll number 14684)
- Location:
- Eachroim, Co. Ros Comáin
- Teacher: Máiréad, Bean Uí Bheirn
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0249, Page 200
Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.
See copyright details.
DownloadOpen data
Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
- XML School: Eachroim
- XML Page 200
- XML “Churning”
Note: We will soon deprecate our XML Application Programming Interface and a new, comprehensive JSON API will be made available. Keep an eye on our website for further details.
On this page
- I have a churn at home. It is about three feet high and seventeen inches at the top and nineteen inches at bottom. The sides are round. It is seventeen years old. The top of the churn is called the peck. There is no mark on the churn.
Butter is made once a week in Winter and twice a week in Summer. My mother does the churning and is helped by my Father. It takes about an hour. The dash is moved upwards and downwards and sometimes it is given a rolling motion from side to side. When the butter grains appear cold water is poured into the churn and the churning is continued until the butter grains are as large as wheat grains. Then the churning is stopped. The butter is lifted out with a scoop. It is washed and salted and pressed and made into bricks or rolls or prints.
Buttermilk is used for making bread and it is also given to calves and pigs.
If a person comes in during the churning he is expected to say "God bless the work" and take a turn at the churning(continues on next page)
