CHAPTER 1 Great-Great-Grandmother s Lasting Thumb Print A Legacy of Butter Churning By Brooklyn Stoner It is very important to cherish the old-fashioned things in life, like butter churning. My greatgreat grandparents, Rosa and Frank Barger, lived on a cattle farm. They milked their own cows, stored their own milk, and because of that, they were able to make their own butter. Butter churning was crucial to my family in the early 1900s. During the Great Depression, my great-great grandparents lost their cattle farm and had to move in with my great grandparents, Fannie and Ivo Barger. In 1934, my grandma, Hazel (Barger) Stoner was born. For the rest of her life, up until her grandparents died, they lived with her. When my grandma got older, her job was to crank the Dazey Butter Churn. She claims that it was fun for a child, but as she grew older, it turned into somewhat of a punishment. My grandma kept the Dazey Butter Churn, the butter mold, the wooden butter paddle, the butter dishes, and the milk cans. While learning the process from her, it felt very authentic, because we used all the things my great-great grandmother used back in the day. While learning this process, I found out that it was not as difficult as I had anticipated. Below are the steps of the process. Step 1: Begin with heavy whipping cream. It will need to sit at room temperature for a couple of hours prior to the churning. We used three cartons. Step 2: Pour the heavy whipping cream into the Dazey Butter Churn and put the top on. Step 3: Place your hand on the crank and begin turning the handle for 20 to 30 minutes. The cream will go through different stages. It will get thick, then thin, then thick again. When it is finally thick and butter-like, remove the churn top. Step 4: Strain all the buttermilk from the churn. Once you have a majority of the buttermilk out, pour the butter into a bowl. Step 5: Once the butter is in the bowl, use the butter paddle to press out any excess
buttermilk. To make it easier, we worked with small sections of butter at a time. Step 6: Once the buttermilk has been pressed out, put all the butter into a bowl again. Add water to the butter and mix it up. This is called washing the butter to make sure all of the buttermilk is extracted. Pour the excess water out, then begin pressing the water and buttermilk out of the butter. We did this in small sections as well. Step 7: Add salt to your liking. We added two teaspoons. Step 8: Refrigerate or freeze the butter. Enjoy! For my interview, I asked my Grandma and my Aunt Sharon questions. When you read BROOKLYN, it is me, the interviewer. When you read GRANDMA, it is interviewee #1. When you read AUNT SHARON it is interviewee #2. BROOKLYN: What got you started on butter churning? GRANDMA: Well, as a child growing up, churning butter was a necessity, because we did not go to grocery stores at that time. We lived on a farm, we had plenty of milk, and so we used that milk or the cream off of that milk for our butter. BROOKLYN: What do you like about butter churning? GRANDMA: Well, I have not done butter churning for several years, but as a child it was entertainment to turn the crank. However, the churn has not been in use for several years. BROOKLYN: Do you think that churned butter tastes better than butter you can buy at the store? GRANDMA: Well, yes, because it has a fresh taste to it, and it really goes good on homemade bread. My grandmother always baked bread. As a child, I didn t appreciate the homemade bread that much, and I thought it was a treat to go visit my cousin who lived in town and had fresh store-bought bread. But the butter really added a lot to the homemade bread. BROOKLYN: What history does our family have with butter churning? GRANDMA: Well, my grandparents were married in 1891, and this churn and the butter mold and the pat [paddle] probably were all used when she first started housekeeping. And, then during the Depression, my grandparents lost their farm where they lived, and they moved in with my dad and my mother. And when they moved, they brought these things that they still used to my parents home. And we just have continued enjoying
them ever since. For several years now, they have just been on a shelf [laugh], but it s nice to be able to get them down today and to talk about them and to think more about them. BROOKLYN: Why have you held on to the Dazey Butter Churn and other butter making utensils all these years? GRANDMA: I guess because of sentimental value. Also, I have been interested in anything antique. And due to the fact that it s been in the family all these years, I don t want to get rid of anything. AUNT SHARON: But I think one of the reasons Grandma and Grandpa keep so many things is because they lived through the Depression. Everything had a value to it. If you bought it, you used it until you didn t need it anymore. Then you always kept it in case you might need it again. That s why even Grandma and Grandpa didn t discard them, because at some point, they might have a need for them again. ******* The Dazey Butter Churn No. 40 was patented on February 14, 1922, in St. Louis, Missouri. The wooden butter mold was patented on April 17, 1866. The mold has a pineapple carved in it. The pineapple means welcome. The wooden paddle was my Great-Great Grandmother s. Over many years of use, her thumb mark is actually imprinted into it. ******* BROOKLYN: What memories do you have from churning butter as a kid? GRANDMA: One of the things I really remember is Grandma using this butter spoon and really, really pressing down on it to get all that buttermilk out. That was not my job. Grandma took over that, because it was very important to get all that out, and she didn t think I was big enough or strong enough [laugh]. But the turning of the crank was fun for a child. AUNT SHARON: And what I remember of the utensils is that my Grandma Barger, Fannie Barger, she had them kept in her kitchen on display. And I can remember when I was a teenager, Grandma showing me these items, and talking about how hard they use to have to work to have the daily necessities. I can remember as a teenager holding on to that spoon and just feeling, feeling that groove [thumb print], and just thinking at that
time that my Great Grandmother is the one that had used that in her daily chores and had worn it to that point. That just always kinda stuck with me. BROOKLYN: When was the last time you churned butter and why was it the last time? GRANDMA: I m not sure the last time I did this, cause it would of been, I would say, probably 70 years ago. And [pause] the reason I can t remember too much about all these details is that we finally were able to have electricity, and a refrigerator. Then it was just easier to buy the butter at the grocery store. BROOKLYN: Is butter churning something you enjoy doing? GRANDMA: I m looking forward to doing this again to experiment with this. As I say, it has been so long since I actually had an experience doing it. And as a child, when I did it, it was probably a chore, something that was expected of me to do. BROOKLYN: Would you consider butter churning a valuable skill? GRANDMA: Back in the time when we were actually doing it, it was a valuable skill, cause it was a necessity. At that time, almost all food that we ate was raised on the farm. We did very little buying at the grocery store, except for flour and sugar and staples of that nature. So it was an important thing to do, to churn the butter so we could have it fresh. We didn t just go to the grocery store everyday like we might do now. At that time, probably once a week was all that we would go, and that was on a Saturday night. BROOKLYN: How many times have you churned butter in your life? GRANDMA: I m not sure how many times I would ve done this. It was time I could spend with my grandmother. My grandmother did most of the housework, or should I say the kitchen work. She was the main cook. My mother would do the outside work with Dad, and it was, I suppose, some entertainment for me to do this. BROOKLYN: What are the advantages of churning butter? GRANDMA: I guess the main [pause] advantages would be the flavor of it. Freshness. Ya know, it s a lot of work, but the taste of it would be the advantage. BROOKLYN: How does it make you feel knowing you are teaching me to churn butter? GRANDMA: I think this is a fun day! I enjoy spending time with my granddaughter. I m glad she has an interest in history, to know how things were done back in the last century, and I m looking forward to the churning.
BROOKLYN: Can you describe the process of churning butter? GRANDMA: Well, to begin with, you do need cream. Now, when we lived on the farm, we would take a dipper and dip the cream off the top of the milk can. The cream always would rise to the top. So it takes cream rather than milk to make butter. The richer the milk they always said that the jersey cows had richer milk fat in them the better the butter. But for our process, we don t have the availability of milk from the cow, and of course, it wasn t pasteurized or anything. But today as we do this, we re going to use heavy whipping cream. I think the secret is to have the cream at room temperature. And we ll put it into the Dazey Butter Churn and begin turning the cream. Depending on conditions, it will probably take 20 to 30 minutes. There are different stages of this. At first, it will look like milk, then it s going to get thick, more like whipping cream. Eventually, it s going to get so stiff that it will be hard for the paddles to turn. You will know when the butter is ready. Once it is thickened, you will take it out and put it in a bowl. That s when you will pour off all the buttermilk. Now, this buttermilk can be used for baking, or if you so desire, it can be drank as buttermilk. However, you have to develop a certain desire or taste for it. I did not ever develop that taste for buttermilk [laugh]. So you pour that off. Then you take the paddle and you press out all of the buttermilk. Because if you have the buttermilk in there, that is what causes the butter to go bad or gets a foul taste to it. And so it really takes work to get that pressed out. When that it is done, it will be pressed into the mold. Salt can be added to help preserve the butter. And after that, it will be put into the butter mold, pressed in there. And it should come out beautiful then with the pineapple design on the top. It can be put into a butter dish. This should be refrigerated now, because there are no preservatives except for the salt. It will not keep like the butter you buy at the store. ******* The Great Depression caused a lot of destruction, but our family made it through. Not only did our family make it through, but our butter making utensils did too. Butter churning was a crucial chore that meant a lot to my family. Today, it means a lot to me that we still have those utensils and that I can continue the butter churning legacy.
Works Cited Doug & Linda's Dairy Antique Site. Dairyantiques.com. Web. November 10, 2014, 1:55 p.m. Fields, Sharon. Personal interview. November 8, 2014. Hazel Stoner s house. Stoner, Hazel. Personal interview. November 8, 2014. Hazel Stoner s house. Welcome to Lancaster County - A Friendly, Beautiful, and Fun Destination. Web. November 10, 2014. 2:05 p.m.