from the Archives, "Everything is Better with Butter"

Growing up, we were almost totally self- sufficient. We went to town once a month at the most. Otherwise, we grew or raised practically everything we needed right there on the ranch. I remember once a friend offered me a yogurt when I was 10 or 11 and I had no idea what she was talking about. We didn’t drink soft drinks, ate very little candy and rarely ate anything that was not homemade

One of the things I missed most when I went to college was what my dad always called “wild milk:” fresh, unpasteurized, homogenized, straight-from-the-cow milk. I could hardly stand to drink what I bought from the store. For 18 years, we had milked a cow and that meant we had fresh cream, butter, and cottage cheese, too. Not to mention the strongest handshake in the state. I didn’t realize how good I had it.

My mother made bread once a week and I was usually in charge of churning the butter. When the fresh bread came out of the oven, there was a rush for hot bread and butter. Yum!

I’ve always wanted my little girl to experience some of those grassroots things. I think they’re very important. So little of the population even really knows where food comes from or how it is made. In our house we still make everything from scratch, no mixes here!

I’ve been lucky enough to purchase a share in a milk cow and now we have fresh milk. After saving the cream off several gallons, I had enough to churn. Finding the churn was a little bit of a challenge, but one was procured. We went through the ritual of dumping in the cream and letting it rise to room temperature, all the while a little girl was running by giving the handle a quick turn, begging to make butter.

When it was ready, it was ready! Ten minutes later we had a pound and half of beautiful, hand-churned butter ready to be worked, salted and stored.

How good can life get?!

For great information about Real Milk and all of its benefits check out this site www.westonaprice.org

Originally published on the first contemporarywesterndesign.com site June 2007