Real Butter! With Pictures



 

 

This is the starting product. A gallon of real milk. The top part is cream, the lower half is milk. When the two are separated you have cream and skim milk. The cream is what gives the milk flavor so when we make butter I drink the milk but I don't enjoy it.

 

This is us skimming the cream off the top. It's very thick compared to what you are probably used to from the store. From here we separate it in to two mason jars that are both half full.

 

 

 

 

We then put lids on the jars and shook them for about 15-25 minutes. It was stunning for me. It was my first time. After about 10 minutes I began to wonder if I was doing something wrong, I couldn't see that anything was happening. Then all of a sudden I noticed a lump in my jar. I tilted the jar over on it's side and I could see that there was a very large lump of butter beginning. We both became very excited, each of us was doing one. By the time that twenty minutes had passed we were just making sure that we had shook it enough, being as it was our first time, we weren't sure when to stop.

We were both very surprised by how much of the cream became butter. Both jars together only created a half cup of "butter milk". "Butter milk" is what they call the milk that is left over after making butter.

 

 

 

 

 

A view into one of the jars.

 

 

 

A view into the other jar. 

 

 

 

 

Both jars side by side

 

  

 

 

This was us straining a jars worth of butter, getting the buttermilk.

 

 

 

 

This was us washing one of the jars worth of butter, cleaning it so that there was no buttermilk left on it at all.

 

 

 

And this is the final product, a jar full of butter!

 

 

Elizabeth and I are eager to make butter again. We found our Dazey butter churn hiding in a box in the garage. We really want to use it. It should be much easier on our wrists. I'm not sure when we'll get a chance to do that. I had hoped that it would be easier for us to get an extra gallon from our source but it's proven to be difficult. And neither of us really want to waste a gallon of drinkable milk. The skimmed milk is very unappetizing.

 

A note about real butter:

 

Do not keep it out like you do store bought butter, this butter will not keep at room temperature.

That being said, you will want to leave this butter out for a while before you intend to use it for a meal, or for bread, etc. It becomes very hard and difficult to spread when cold. Of course a simple remedy for a slice of bread is to put some on a slice as best you can and to microwave it. It doesn't take long at all. Simply taking it out from the fridge and letting it sit for a half-hour is plenty of time for it to become spreadable. It's very smooth. If you practice this, I encourage you to consume the butter inside of a week and certainly by the end of two.

 

Or you can try a French Butter Bell. We've not tried that yet for real butter. If you have please send us a message, we want to hear about it!

 

 

Because your butter will not have any preservatives in it, it will not keep in your fridge as long either. I think that if we had made one mason jars worth that we would have enough to last us two weeks. We eat like birds, so if you like butter, feel free to make as much as you want. Obviously with the cream from one gallon, you'll have a mason jar full! A quart of butter.

 

The truth:

This butter tastes exactly very similar to store bought, however if you know the cow that you got your milk from, then you know for a fact that this is the real deal and that it is much more nutritious and healthy for you. It's worth the fun of making it with the family, that's for certain!

 

 

 

 

 

What's New?

Well I'm currently at home watching Abigail Grace. This is my first week of retirement from truck-driving. Everything is going well. I'll see if I can load a picture or two on here and make it look nice.

 

 

I've never heard parents comment about how much their child smiled, Abigail smiles all day it seems. Of course she has her bouts where she is upset, but that's only normal.

 

So as we have probably said elsewhere, our little piece of land is about .80 of an acre. Plenty of land to have some fun with for two adults and a baby. So Elizabeth and I eagerly adopted three goats. We had them for about two months when one of them decided to escape three days in a row. The local law enforcement didn't appreciate this distraction. They let us know that our goats were a violation of the town law. They then let us know that our chickens are as well. Yes, we seriously were ordered to remove our chickens in a town of less than five thousand people. The goats, although it made me angry to remove them, I could deal with it. But the chickens needing to be removed, that really angered me. Dogs with sharp teeth are ok loose in a backyard, but not chickens. Doesn't seem logical, but that's probably why I don't make the laws-They'd make sense. So now our back yard and back field are essentially vacant.

We toyed with the idea of growing produce for the local farmers markets but decided that in the end the financial investment would be too much and that the distraction from plane making would be intollerable. Realisticly any money that would be invested in gardening should really be put into tool-making. Right now is an important time to focus on that as a priority. I'm at the center of a perfect storm if I can do things just right. Ive got one life to liv and need to do this right.

Eventually we will have a very large and healthy garden, but this is not the year for it as the season has already passed and next year I will be deeply involved in my tools when time allows.

Ok so it"s been 11 weeks since Abigail was born. I'll try to get Elizabeth to write a posting on that. It was alot of work for the two of us. It was here, at home, unmedicated. So much work.

Thanks for keeping up on our posts. There will be many more now that I am at home and have two free hands! No more driving!!

Lord bless and always seek his will!

Michael

Sorry

I apologize for the lack of new content. Work has been more than steady and we are still adjusting to some of our life changes.

If we haven't mentioned it yet, we are now down to two chickens. One is Baldy and the other is a Red Star. They seem to be getting along like the best of buds. Both are molting though so we currently have no egg supply. Unfortunately the three other chickens we had with Baldy got picked off one by one by a hawk so we had to find some company for her quickly. Livestock tends to not do well when isolated. Due to the threat of the hawk we kept Baldy in the coop 24/7. She wasn't used to this and it's actually still the case till we can come up with a solution that works for us.

I'd really like to elaborate about what's going on in my woodworking world but really don't feel like I can do it justice till I am home all the time. My tool collection is steadily increasing as is my library. What is deeply lacking is me getting the experience I need and that will only come with me leaving truck driving permanently.

Today I was able to visit a Woodcraft store. I was pleased to see how inexpensive some lumber is, though I still think that I would feel compelled to order what I wanted instead of purchasing what's in-stock. I looked around at the tools they had for sale and it really made me comfortable with the selection I have.

My next two greatest priorities with woodworking involve a new bench and a milling machine. More will be sure to come after that like a table saw and perhaps a band saw. My choices will really be determined by how much work I have of what types.

Once my bench has been made or ordered my next focus will shift to making a Trying plane. Once I have made it I will have all the planes I need to thickness stock. My focus will then promptly shift to a need for a moving fillister. I'll need it for when I make boxes. It helps in making a rabbet around the bottom to raise the interior into the box. It all helps with the gluing surface as well. Depending on how lids are made a moving fillister can help with them as well. Usually the moving fillister will remove the bulk of the material and a rabbet or shoulder plane will come in and more accurately remove the rest. These tools are a real treasure to use.

I've got alot of experience that I need. I have to keep reminding myself that I'm only 29, so many times I think I'm 59 and the clock is ticking. Truth is I'm fine and have plenty of time ahead of me. Of course at this point having sufficient time to read the quantity of material I would like, would also help alot in advancing my "career". I'm not sure what my future holds, only what I would like to do.

Lord bless you in your path

Michael

Beekeeping - Part I

And thou shalt write upon them all the words of this law, when thou art passed over, that thou mayest go in unto the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, a land that floweth with milk and HONEY; as the LORD God of thy fathers hath promised thee. - Deuteronomy 27:3

Although bees are not native to North America and technically therefore an invasive species, many people enjoy raising them. What other livestock can you raise 100,000 head in such a small space? Tinier than any other animal on the farm, but they are much smarter than any chicken or sheep. They exemplify teamwork, steadfastness, and personal sacrifice for the common good.  

I have been attending beekeeping classes at the local university; three hours per session and a three part series. I would like to start keeping bees this year but need to watch my schedule. Beekeeping, much like chicken rearing, is a process of learning that should not be taken lightly. I learned much about my chickens just by sitting outside and watching them for hours at a time. The more time you spend with your animals, the easier it is to recognize sickness, the foods they desire, and pecking orders. I have come to recognize vitamin deficiencies by watching them eat certain plants and what I deem inedibles. Bees are no different.

When I start beekeeping, I want to sit outside and study them for hours. One of the things that amazed me during class was the rainbow colors of pollen. Bees will only gather from one species of plant every trip and pack that into its own waxy cell.

Different colors of pollen - Courtesy of The Vintage Bee Company

As to what kind of beehive, ­­­Robo at Bushkill Farms has a wonderful analysis on his youtube channel and his blog. You can find him at http://robo.bushkillfarms.com. Although, I am drawn to the top bar hive due to its cheap status and hippy-ish design (it was created for the people of Africa to house bees who have no access to traditional lumber as we know it); I am also interested in the Langstroth hive for its traditionalism and ability to stack supers on top of one another. Once I get started on this project, I may just have to try both! One of the great things about the Langstroth hive is the ability to integrate a Freeman Beetle Trap which is becoming a rather big problem here in the South. 

Langstroth Hive - Courtesy of NC State University 

Top Bar Hive - Courtesy of The Garden Hive

Freeman Beetle Trap in Action

A super is a box where surplus honey is stored by the hive. Boxes are added as needed and removed during the honey harvest. For those that are small-framed women, the Langstroth honey supers can prove too heavy to safely lift but there are options. Supers come in three sizes: shallow (approx. 35 lbs. full), medium or Illinois super (50 lbs.) and the traditional deep (90 lbs.). I will mostly be sticking to the shallows and mediums. It will probably not occur your first year, but during the second, you may be stacking your supers way over your head. Balancing heavy boxes full of bees and honey on a ladder may not be the best situation.

Courtesy of the University of Missouri

Beekeeping links:      

http://beekeeperlinda.blogspot.com

www.beesource.com      

www.beekeeping.com/articles/us/small_beekeeping/index.htm

http://www.freemanbeetletrap.com/

Raising Chickens

When our four ladies first made it to the farm last summer, I spent hours sitting in the sun watching them. Now that the temperature has dropped and the spring rains of Arkansas have started, I do not spend so much time with them.   Our coop is a simple A-frame with no artificial lighting. Although we may be losing out on egg production, we feel that all creatures deserve a rest and if God intended them to stop laying when the number of sunny hours decreases then so be it. Interesting enough, egg production ceased only for about two weeks in mid-December.

Now that January is almost over, I am back up to four eggs a day. I am already back into baking/hard boiling mode and desperately giving them away.   Even with the temperature dropping below the freezing mark, our girls stayed nice and warm bundled up in their straw. They did lose some weight, but they are looking better than ever with their feathers coming in. When Michael brought them home for me, their backs were bald from an over-zealous rooster. The worst of the bunch was our Barred Rock, “Baldy.” She feathered out quicker than the others and now we have a hard time telling the two apart!

Baldy

Chicken projects for this summer include attaching wheels to the coop and constructing a type of detachable outdoor pen. The first, will make it much easier to move. The second will give the chickens more room to dig and graze. Unfortunately, with all the wandering neighborhood dogs, we cannot let our chickens out during the day unattended.