Fresh Butter
November 28th, 2015 · No Comments · Posted in farming
Here’s something we’re thankful for on this holiday weekend: the butter we get from our Jersey cow, Emily.
I’m still a novice when it comes to milking and making dairy products, so I can’t explain the mechanics behind the evolution of Emily’s milk. It was pretty thin when we first started milking her in the spring. We struggled to collect enough cream for a pound of butter. Seven months later and her milk is thick and full of cream. In fact, from every gallon (about two day’s worth) I harvest a quart of cream, which makes a pound of butter.
And it’s so easy–add a teaspoon of salt (or not), a couple minutes in the food processor and the cream whips up, then separates into butter and buttermilk. After draining off the buttermilk, you have to knead the butter, either with your hands or a stiff spatula, to squeeze out excess liquid. Then pack and seal in small containers. It will keep in the fridge, or the freezer.
Emily’s butter is bright yellow-orange from all the beta carotene she consumes foraging on our pastures. She eats mostly grass, and about 10 pounds of non-GMO grain each day to compensate for all the calories she burns making milk for us and for her calf.
Once you have fresh butter from a Jersey cow, you have to find more ways to eat it. We’ve been slathering it on corn bread, toast, mashed potatoes. Daughter likes to mix it into her pasta. And of course any recipes that call for butter get the Emily treatment.
And then there are people who just eat it with a spoon.
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