On Making Your Own Butter

I think all of us bloggers, at one time or another, re-assess our blogs - what was the original intention, and where am I going with my blog? My original intention was to keep family and friends "in the know" after I moved from Ohio to Kansas.

Now that it has been over a year since my move to OzLand, OzVille, or Kansas, whatever you want to call it, I need a new purpose for my blog. Since I have always had oodles of admiration for those who choose to homestead, and since my husband and I live on 26 acres, this is the direction I will take with my blog. No, no, not full-blown homesteading advice (I am sadly uninformed when it comes to homesteading and how to fend for myself!), BUT I will try to give everyone more country advice, more country content, and more country snapshots. And I will endeavor to be more self-sufficient, if that's even possible for this bumbling midlife gal.

So without further ado, I'll show you how to make your own butter. There are various methods - do you want sweet cream butter, or cultured butter? Personally, I am trying the sweet cream method first, because it is easy-peasy! Anyone can do this. And I have the guarantees from other bloggers, MaryJane's Farm, and Mother Earth News magazine!

Once you start using homemade butter,
you won't look back.
~Mother Earth News

The easiest way to make your own butter can be found here at the Cold Antler Farm blog (scroll down to her August 9 post), or here at Proud to Be the Keeper of Our Home. Both blogs have instructions that vary slightly.

On a side note, check out the rest of the Cold Antler Farm blog -
she's a very inspiring 20-something, homesteading, writing gal
who lives in Vermont, with her very own book too!

Tammy at Flat Creek Farm made her own butter - she inspired me to do all this research. (The link to her blog will take you straight to her adventures in butter-making.) In her butter-making post, Tammy also has a link to Farmgirl Susan's Almost Too Easy Whole Wheat Beer Bread - I'm going to be trying that recipe once the hubby is home from Washington ~ if I make it before he gets home, yours truly will eat it ALL ~ and we all know that a whole loaf of bread is not good for our midlife bulge. Let me know if any of you beat me to it and try it.

If you want even more detail on butter making, please go to the article that was in the June/July issue of Mother Earth News, Homemade Butter - The Best You'll Ever Have. I just re-read this article in my back issue, and it's chock-full of fantastic information. It will explain the difference between sweet cream butter (what we're making here) and cultured butter, which you also have the ability to make. I'd like to try making a cultured butter someday.

And here's your country photo today.... my heavy cream just waiting to be shaken up into a delectable, home-made, sweet cream butter. I will update y'all once I have shaken this jar until my arm falls off - I am sure it will be worth the yummy butter I will have.

Update

Here's my first batch of butter, 10: p.m. Thursday, October 7th.
I added the barest amount of salt to the butter, just grains really.
And it made between 1/2 and 3/4 cup of buttermilk,
which I will use to make buttermilk pancakes.

It absolutely tastes better than store-bought butter. Fresh!