churning away

I was itching to start knitting with this yarn - a fair-isle effect yarn from Sirdar - but am now in the "grin and bear it" stage of the knitting right now. The long slog to knit up and beyond the armholes. I feel that I've already done a bit to see what it knits up like and am resisting the urge to cast on something else to see what that would knit up like. I'm trying to be strictly monogamous with this project - I am, of course, not including any sock or shawl knitting.

It occurs to me that I simply don't have anything like enough useful knitted items in my wardrobe. The weather here has been so changeable between blazing sunshine and cruelly cold wind that I keep reaching for a little cardigan and I just don't have one. So, my intention is to get better at starting - and finishing - some useful clothing for myself. This fairisle-ish number is going to be a sleeveless wraparound cardigan (is there a proper noun for that kind of cardigan??).

If I pull my finger out and get knitting.

Do you remember the little calf I showed you a couple of entries ago? Well, I've been taking ever more strides along the road to self-sufficiency and started milking his mother. We now have a House Cow - she's called Iris and is being milked, by me, every morning.

The fresh milk is a delight and it has much more taste than Tesco-bought milk. If you've ever bought, say, cream from a farm shop then you'll have an idea of what I mean. There's something redolent of the green pasture that she lives in - not in a horrible-taste way, just in a different-taste way. In the first few weeks of milking, there has been an absolute abundance of milk so I've been able to have milk and cream, to make clotted cream and to make some butter.

To make the butter, I started with about a litre of fresh milk. The plan was to use my KitchenAid mixer with the beater to churn the milk into butter. I don't yet have any dedicated dairying equipment (it's all so expensive) and I'm very keen on the idea of using everyday items wherever possible in all my endeavours so, after reading around the internet for some advice, I thought this would be the best way forwards.

The full-fat milk was poured into the mixing bowl and "churned" for an eternity. Nothing happened at all. Except for re-decorating some of my local worktop and walls because I got a little frustrated and turned the speed up. Not a good idea.

Instead, I took another approach and put the milk back into its container and shook and shook and shook. Then I called in the husband and had him shake it some more. Then each of the daughters took a turn to shake. And then I shook it even more. That's a lot of energy pinging around and, finally, there was a definite shift in the noise and texture of the milk. I opened up the lid and found butter.

Of course, it needs to be drained - the liquid is buttermilk which can be used in cooking - and then the remaining butter needs to be pressed and squeezed to get rid of the last residues of liquid. The husband made me some butter pats and I think it fairly clear from the size of the pats that we were expecting a lot more butter. But there's always next time. There was enough butter for us to cut up a loaf of bread, butter it thickly and feel very proud of ourselves. I didn't add any salt although it could easily be done, as could any type of herb or flavouring.

I'll leave you with a close up of my little red hat. It was a great success at the wedding. (The headband, to which I had securely sewn it, was the greatest success in my mind - my hair is just too straight to work with a comb or even a hat pin to keep the hat in place but a narrow headband pretty much just disappears when worn.) The ex-RAF pilot who shared our table thought the hat absolutely "ripping" which amused me no end and we both had to agree that it wasn't going to keep me dry if it rained. I say!

Posted by Anita at June 17, 2009 12:26 PM