Self-Sufficiency in Style
September diary
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Self-Sufficiency in Style September diary
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September started badly.
The potato crop had, as we thought, caught blight. This disease has become much more troublesome in recent years. The unusually damp summers are no doubt one of the reasons. The tomatoes in the poly-tunnel succumbed too. The humble potato, the tomato, the garden huckleberry, the aubergine and the deadly nightshade are all unlikely seeming members of the same family - and can spread disease one to the other. The first two are important crops to lose, although we did rescue enough of both for our needs. It is a sobering thought that our ancestors managed without them as, of course, both were introduced to Europe following the discovery of America. Ireland without the spud and Italy without the tomato! The mind boggles. |
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We did have a big success though. We are now self sufficient in butter, despite the weather interfering with this too. |
Waiting Attention |
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Co-operative Cow |
Our butter production starts with Gladys the Jersey.
We have been successfully milking her since May. We get over a gallon of very rich milk every day. |
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skimmed milk, so the milk is processed through a milk separator.
Skimmed appears from one nozzle, rich cream from the other. Some of the milk is used, some is frozen for use during the couple of months each year when Gladys is dry. Some of the cream is frozen in ice cube trays the rest goes to butter production. |
Milk Separator |
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Churning by machine is easier - a standard food mixer does the job well |
Butter is not made from fresh cream, but from cream that has stood for a
few days.
The processing, although not fully understood by scientists even today, is simple. The cream can be churned by hand or by machine. It changes texture and colour, and unbelievably, quite suddenly, you have butter. It is washed with cold water, maybe a little salt is added, and it is ready to eat. |
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Well that is what should happen - and it did, first time too.
Delicious, home made butter appeared as if by magic. ...and proved to be unrepeatable. Trial after trial failed. We tried everything, but the cream stubbornly refused to become butter. |
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We changed the age of the cream, we changed the quantity. We changed the
temperature, We changed the churning speed.
Nothing - zilch. We asked farmers and elderly farmer's wives who remembered making butter by hand in their mother's kitchens. The only thing all were agreed on was that butter was tricky - and that it did fail especially in the summer when there was thunder about - presumably in conditions of warmth and high humidity. The dairies in English farmhouses were, of course, always on the north side of the house. |
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Finally the weather changed. Still very wet, but colder.
The cream turned to butter. Which only goes to show that despite all our modern appliances, some things still depend on the weather. Making your own butter, the potatoes and the tomatoes being just some of them. |
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Turning cream into butter depends on the weather at the irrationally named Hangman's Cottage, just to the south of Misery Corner. |
