Butter Churn

      Imagine this. It’s the 1940s in Kings County, NB. The sun is shining, the wind is gusting a warm mid-summer breeze. The man of the farm is out on the large green tractor planting for the autumn crops. The children are all dressed up in their Sunday school clothes playing outside, running around the white picket fence that encloses their Victorian style house. Meanwhile, the mother is performing her daily chores. You might be thinking she’s sweeping the floors, or doing the dishes or hanging the clothes out to dry on this fine day. Instead she is creating a well-known, sauce, additive, and condiment that has been around for centuries. She is making butter.
      
     The picture below, for the people who are unaware, is a butter churner. Evidence for the use of butter dates back as early as 2000 BC, and there is mention of it in biblical works. One of the responsibilities the women of households had was to churn butter until it was up to perfection standards. This process consisted of 30 minutes of hard pushing and pulling of the cream with the butter stick in up and down motions.  Once the product is churned, it is then separated from the buttermilk and is ready for use. The reminder of buttermilk would also be kept for cooking purposes or to drink. 

     Butter churning has revolutionized the way we do things nowadays. It was a brilliant way to make use of cream and alter it into a new creation!