Down on the Farm

Last weekend, I set aside years of aversion to what I thought was buttermilk. That is, I thought buttermilk was what you bought at the grocery store. In more recent months, I have learned that buttermilk sold at the store is actually a cultured sour milk.  My dad and a friend who grew up on Pennsylvania Dutch cooking had praised buttermilk as a beverage, and so, when I made butter last weekend, I took a sip. And another, and another, and another.  I could easily have consumed the two cups of buttermilk that were the result of making a pound of butter, only I shared the experience with friends.  

Since I discovered the joys of fresh butter, I have been finding all sorts of uses for buttermilk.  Pancakes, for example.  When our last box of Bisquick ran out, I vowed to not purchase anymore, instead putting together a homemade pancake mix that I have dubbed "Disquick." Using that with fresh buttermilk resulted in just about the best pancakes I have ever had.  

Today, I am about ready to make butter again, this time thinking I'm going to use some of the buttermilk to make cornbread with our home-grown jalapeno peppers.  They are the first produce to ripen in our yard, and much bigger than last year's peppers.  Soon to follow will be our sole bell pepper so far.  

Tonight's menu looks like the following:

Frittata with home-grown basil

Salad-home-grown lettuce and cherry tomatos with homemade dressing

Cornbread-locally grown and ground cornmeal, homemade butter and buttermilk, and home-grown jalapenos. 

I can't wait until the day we have chickens and can have fresh eggs!

Spinning and Butter

So I recently purchased a handmade pottery butter churn from the potter herself.  The old-fashioned kind, with a dasher. It's a 1/2 gallon churn, and works quite well for a quart of cream, which comes out to about a pound of butter and 2 cups of buttermilk.  I had made butter recently with a friend who has a similar churn, and found myself confident of being able to repeat the experience. The first time took place outside on a hot day with room temperature cream. With several people taking turns, it only took about ten minutes for cream to finish its magical transformation into smooth, creamy butter.  When I attempted it on my own, in the AC in front of an episode of the Tudors, it took nearly the whole episode.  But it was absolutely worth it, despite tired arms from the up-down motions.  The butter was extremely creamy, and of course, free of anything except cream.  It went delicious on homemade corn bread (the cornmeal came from a local historic mill that grinds with an 18th century water wheel, and the corn was local too!)  

My other new skill is spinning!  Yesterday, with a friend's drop spindle, I got a brief lesson in spinning.  A drop spindle is as if you took one piece off the spinning wheel (the part that Sleeping Beauty pricked her finger on, if you recall.) Instead of the wheel moving the spindle, you drop it and give it a flick, and the spinning of the spindle twists the wool into thread.  I started sewing about five years ago, and found this to be much easier to pick up, although of course I am no expert. It's extremely relaxing, and I will be making my own drop spindle, using a dowel and clay for weight.  

I am going to demonstrate both of these skills for my sixth-grade class this week as part of a lesson about how much daily life has changed from the time period that they studied in Social Studies this year (American History to 1877).  Ah the text messaging generation.