Anyone else obsessed and basically keeping a cow or three for just the butter? I make a lot of butter. In the spring when the cattle are eating lush, fast growing forage it’s the most rich- nutrient dense- gold there is. But winter butter is nothing to sneeze at either. In fact, it’s actually preferable for pastry.
I hand skim the thick cream and if I am culturing it, I will add my culture or catch it from the air or use leftover buttermilk. In the winter I culture the cream for up to a week. Sweet cream means zero culturing. Making butter takes time. And when you add everything up keeping a cow takes in addition to all your time I only half joke good 100% grass-fed happy cow raw butter is probably worth $400 a pound. I do not barter butter. I do keep a freezer full as well as a pantry shelf with nutty decadent ghee.
All the water washes get poured over chicken or hog feed. No waste. Once you start living a life full of good butter there is no going back.
(First image SPRING butter. Last image WINTER butter.)
I began my homesteading journey from the perspective of a Nutritional Therapist, closet herbalist, and beekeeper. This mentally gave me a few barriers to diving into the conventionally accepted tools for animal health such as antibiotics, injectable vitamins, generic minerals and mass produced bagged feeds…
Last year, I was a homestead mama on a mission! I decided that if I have all this gloriously thick, rich cream it deserved the best ice cream recipes to honor its true value. Vanilla ice cream was pretty easy to master, though there are some tricks to getting it perfect…
Ever since the first Christmas I can remember, these Crepe’s have been part of our Christmas morning. My mom would make them every year…
The bushels of produce that cluttered the kitchen floor are now neatly tucked into a rainbow of jars on the pantry shelves. Days spent weeding and harvesting will now be spent indoors by the woodstove and in the kitchen enjoying the meals we worked so hard for over the growing season…
My dear friends, it’s been quite a long time I haven’t been here with you. Life has been hectic during summer (I think you know what I am talking about). Sometimes it feels kind of overwhelming having to manage the farm from Monday to Wednesday and the restaurant Thursday to Sunday. We practically never get a day off….
