mmmm butter

We made butter... and it was so easy... and it is so yummy... and every time we eat any we think "we made this and it is so good!" It is one of the most satisfying things we have done in weeks for me - especially since the garden and all our hopes for our fall garden have fallen very short due to daylight getting less and less and all the rain. The garden will prevail in the early spring and we are taking the time to assess our mistakes and work on planning, planning, and more planning for spring... not to mention there is A LOT of art and reading and music and dancing and yoga going on in our home right now, but enough of all that! WE MADE OUR OWN BUTTER and it only took us about an hour and next time we know what to do differently. I have to purchase a couple of things (so typical isn't it?!), but we need a sieve anyhow and some squared off wooden spoons... I had the goal of learning to can this year and I did, I learned to make lace (woohoo) and I wanted to learn to make cheese, but I haven't quite worked up the nerve to embark upon that yet, so, butter is a most excellent substitute for learning to make cheese for now. We found a recipe with pretty decent instructions and tried our best to follow them considering we have never made it before. We picked up the heavy cream at our Athens Locally Grown for a whopping $3.00, unfortunately it is NOT from RAW milk, but sometimes, beggars can't be choosers, and it is from good milk from cows who are treated in a good way and not filled up with all kinds of yuck to keep them producing milk in unnatural ways... blah, blah, blah... on to the pictures...

first we poured the cream into our bowl and we began beating it with the mixer on low...India's nose is all scrunched up because the milk was a little messier than we were thinking it would be.


this is a pic of the cream beginning to change to butter... very cool!


then you pour off all the excess liquid which is buttermilk, but not thick buttermilk like you buy in the store, it actually is very sweet and thin... we gave that to our kitties who really thought they had died and gone to heaven. I bet they can't wait for us to make more butter (I went ahead this week and bought another pint of cream for a second round)The kids also liked the taste of the buttermilk.


the butter before washing and adding a little salt to it. Isn't it so pretty?!


Lastly, you have to get all the moisture out of it before putting it up and shaping it because the moisture will cause it to go bad fast... We didn't shape it because we couldn't figure out to shape it (next time). But it is super yummy on freshly baked biscuits with homemade strawberry jam and it is also really good on whole wheat waffles and fresh corn bread. We've been cooking foods that we can use the butter on! One more notch on my belt to being more self sufficient! What's next?! CHEESE (I hope)!