Making Butter

The week has been harried and its only Tuesday. Of course, it IS the week before Christmas, and while all other sensible homeschooling moms have wisely opted to start Christmas break early, this crazy mom has aspired to have a full week of school so that we can have next week AND the first week of January off. We are studying cows and dairy products this week and one of our science projects was to make butter. Well, being skeptical, but optimistic, I purchased said pint of whipping cream last night with high hopes but not much faith that this would actually work. I actually purchased 2 pints of whipping cream in case this frontier mom ruined the first batch. I've come to discover that its impossible to fail at butter making. Apparently, it is one of the easiest things ever, or perhaps I had an exceptionally great batch of whipping cream to start with. However I can claim the success, our butter took a mere 15 minutes of hearty shaking to form full fluffy peaks of richness. Flavored with a little salt and colored with a little yellow food coloring to make it pretty, I may never buy butter in a tub again. The flavor and texture is sweet, creamy and smooth. WOW! I have heard horror stories of failed butter attempts, small, liquidy, curdly, not fully formed butter. Prepared for the worst, I was amazed to open our jar and discover beautifully formed butter. With a 6 year old at the helm, we cannot claim consistent shaking, but somehow we did it! How cool is that? We're ready for that log cabin and covered wagon! We've got the butter making down pat! We probably would fail, however, at milking the cow by hand!

Wishing you and yours a Blessed Christmas!
Mrs. Mom

Shaking the jar of cream.

The finished product.

The happy shaker!