Churning....

Long ago, as a young fifth grader in a small private school I have recollections of churning butter one afternoon as a school project of some sort.  I vaguely remember it, lots of cranking on a handle connected to a glass jar.  Seems the project was "supposed" to provide butter for a school dinner that night-I'm pretty sure there were sticks of butter on the tables for the dinner. ;)

When we found and started buying whole raw milk I was excited to be able to buy a nice quart of fresh whole, raw cream.  At first my goal was to simply make homemade whipped cream (which I've done for years using "heavy cream" from the grocery).  As I looked at the quart jug of cream I decided we really didn't need THAT much whipped cream and the boys and I decided we should make some homemade butter!  How hard could it be? :)    So, after much research across the internet, I settled on The Healthy Home Economist as my model for making our own butter here at home.  (She also has a ton of wonderful information, tutorials, etc... on her blog for healthy homes and family).

Her video is very well done and it really is as easy as she portrays in her video.  The boys and I enjoyed making the butter-though they did get a little bored as the kitchenaid whirred away, maybe next time I'll have them churn it by hand. ;)

My two little butter churning helpers

Watching the Kitchenaid make short work of the process

Little H really wanted to see what all the excitement was about
(yes, it is perfectly normal for her to have one sock on and one sock off :p ).

Taking a peek to see how the cream is firming up

Turning yellow and really separating the fats out

Ready to scrape it out into the muslim and give it a squeeze

Our finished product, a delicious bowl of fresh churned, home made butter!