The Butter Churn – Growing Up in Dublin, Texas

Every day I would have to stretch the water hose across the gravel road in front of our house and make sure the water trough for the cows was filled up with water. This was a must as they get hot and thirsty just like we people do, but more importantly the cows gave us fresh milk, butter and cream.

Don’t know why I didn’t do it one day and the trough became almost empty. Mistake. No BIG MISTAKE ! When dad got home and saw the trough was dry, I did not hear the end of it. From then on the trough was filled up every day.

Mom would let the milk set for hours and then save the cream some how by straining the milk. Then this would go into the Hand turned Glass Churn. This was a large jar with wooden paddles inside and a handle on top to turn and make the paddles go round. These paddles would turn around and around as long as we would turn the handle After about 7,360 turns (I counted them,really), or more that cream would magically turn to butter. Why was it I was the only one who would get stuck with this chore? My brother and sisters always did not seem to be around to perform this wonderful fun loaded task.

(Thanks to the BUTCH AND DEA ALLEN web page for the picture it is the closest picture I could find to the butter churn we had. )
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Hope you enjoyed my ramblings and that it brought back few memories of you childhood days, no matter what state you hail from.

© Texas Tortilla Factory 2006 – Mike Vauthier