Butter churns:
After the cows' milk had been seperated, the cream was poured into a churn and the handle turned to rotate the paddles, often with a drop of water and salt added. A time consuming task, it could take up to an hour and a half of constant labour to make the final product. And depending on the cream content, up to forty litres of unseparated milk might be needed for just 500 grams of butter!
Constant checking was also necessary to ensure that the butter wasn’t over worked and as a result, glass alternatives were eventually developed to replace timber churns.
Once the correct consistency was achieved, the whey was poured off to be used either as butter milk to drink or for pig food.
A variety of different butter churns were used over the years.
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© Angela George. All rights reserved.
Wooden butter churns like this one were used in many local domestic dairies from the late 18th and into the 19th century. They were small enough to stand on a table and were used for small-scale butter production.
In private ownership.
Images courtesy of and © Angela George.
Wooden “Cherry and Son” churns were popular for domestic butter production during the late 19th and 20th centuries. Made in Gisborne, Victoria, at Cherry and Sons, they were manufactured for about eighty years.
Both in private ownership.
Images courtesy of and © Angela George.
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