My helper has come and he set to work straight away weeding in the vegetable gardens. I think this is where his passion is. The gardens. He has even pitched his tent in by the vege gardens. It was a busy day though. Showing someone where everything is takes time and the poor fellow was feeling a bit over informed by the end of the day.
As he brought cucumbers and tomatoes and peppers in from the garden I got the jars out and began the preserving. It all worked very well. Though, as things were still the the developing stages and he is still getting a handle on how things work, I forgot to get the camera out for a walk around. 
I did make cultured butter though. I had been talking to my daughter on the phone, she works in the food industry in Melbourne and she gave me the idea. Basically I added yoghurt to the cream. About a tablespoon per cup (1/4 cup per gallon) into the raw unheated heavy cream. Then I let it sit overnight and churned it in the morning. The result was astounding. Tangy butter. Plus we had the added bonus of cultured buttermilk. No-one can have too much culture.
I read that I can also make this butter with the kefir starter, so I look forward to trying that. Today I am going to use the cultured butter to make my favourite lemon butter cake. I will write the recipe out for you tonight.
Yesterday I caught four more of the white laying hens who have been loitering in the barn. I put food in the big dog crate and they just walked right in so I shut the door. They are now in with the baby layers. I have already taken 6 roosters out of that flock and put them in the fattening tractor. I think the people must have sold me a straight run (an unsexed group) instead of pullets. I have plenty of hens though, even the four I kept back from the last meat chicken batch might make good layers. Though they will not like the layers diet. Much leaner.
My helper will begin work on the new run for the chooks asap.
But today we will be gardening again. Soon we will be back in order.
I have a good lead on a swiss heifer. The man told me that this year the good ones are selling anywhere between 5 and 10 Thousand dollars. These are show cows but goodness! Not in my price range though! I hope to get mine for a lot less than that. A lot less. I will take you and Camera House when I go over to peruse the animals in question. Maybe as soon as this Sunday. 
Daisy is still holding her own. At least the milk has stopped leaking out the side of the teat, and her production is dropping but she is getting increasingly frustrated with being locked up on the concrete pad. Just a little longer though, more grass means more milk and more milk means more pressure. She also has a massive mastitis infection in the injured quarter again that I am treating too. Even though it is two steps forward and one step back, I do feel that we are gaining ground ever so slowly. Poor old Daisy.
I hope you all have a lovely day
Your friend on the farmy
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
48 responses to “Cultured Butter”
I am on the 5th day of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage and today walked with a Frenchman from Bretagne. As we exchanged information, as one foes, he mentioned that his daughter left today for the UK to learn more about WOOFing and that her dream is to do it in the US. I gave him my contact information so perhaps I can connect her with you! Now I have to go and bandage my poor feet again.
How wonderful! The Fellowship has long arms, thank you, wish we could help your poor feet though.. c
Sounds like your Woofer is hard-working. Can’t wait for pictures of a Swiss Miss.
OMG! That is a lot of money for a cow….. I am sure you can get a lovely one out of a production line for much less. Pedigreed animals are costing way too much…..cats, dogs, horses, everything. Whatever the market will bear, I guess. Purebred is not always the best option, either. A nice well bred heifer with strong legs and hoofs and good udder ligaments and gentle disposition will always be better than some highly inbred show animal, IMHO. Luckily you have time to check out all the options. That butter looks so yummy…..slathered on fresh homemade bread. Mouth watering. Oh yes, tell us the Wwoofer’s name. Does he know he is being watched by the fellowship? He won’t want to leave with all you great cooking.
Oh no, by the pound you can buy cows, beef and dairy for about $1.30 a pound, so I am using that as a benchmark, I want a heifer though, so i can train her to my ways and the pasture diet. I don’t want a cow that has had a high corn diet, their tummies wear out too fast and they are more prone to bloat.. c
The butter sounds amazing.
Good wishes to Daisy…the butter sounds marvellous!
Back when I first started making cheese, I watched a TV chef make butter and she added sour cream, I believe, to the cream before churning. She didn’t let it sit overnight, though, and she claimed it added nice flavor to her butter. I can only imagine how much better yours would be. I’d forgotten all about it until I read your post, Celi.
Glad the WOOFer seems to be working out for you. Just wait until he knows the lay of the land. You’ll be napping in the hammock. 🙂
I had visions of the butter being exposed to Shakespeare and classical music …
that too .. of course, we took turns with the readings!.. c
😀 And showed it some great artworks, no doubt.
Well I am very excited that you are going heifer shopping and eagerly awaiting pictures. In poking around the internet I found a website for the farm by Peoria. http://www.lindenhillfarms.com/ They are good people. For what it is worth I have known them since we were teenagers (like almost 40 years well lets say 35, it sounds younger lol) The families also run a huge composting operation using all that poop producing a product called Better Earth.
Bred heifers are expensive. They are young, full of promise, potential and possibilities. If you were talking to the guy you buy the bull semen from his heifers are the high end kind. Beautiful animals and definitely show stock with the production pedigree to match, milk and beauty. If you were to consider an older cow I think I would look at one that was nearing the end of her lactation. It is recommended that when you are drying a cow off that you decrease the high energy grains and roughage and switch the diet to a more dry matter type. Think grass hay as it is more of a fiber/filler hay than say alfalfa which is high energy hay. You are right about the high energy diet being hard on them especially if they are not getting enough dry fiber too, but from my experience bloat seems to be more of an individual cow condition and it seems to fun in families. Unless there is something wrong with the feed such as it is moldy, too fresh and hot or too much of it provided at one time. Like spring grass can cause bloat if they eat too much too fast and the rumen doesn’t have time to adjust to the change in quality safely. I would think with care and attention you could convert to a grass diet. She won’t produce as much as she did on a high energy diet but you don’t need a Of course with an older cow you also get any bad habits she has learned in time with the milking string. Just a few thoughts.
All good thoughts.. Poor old daisy is on the mean grass hay!! trying to cut her production down.. she lets me know too.. the man i am going to meet with is on Blooomington, these will not be show cows though he does show some cows, and he is asking just above what they are worth from the locker.. I do want a young one, I am thinking long term as I would like to milk two cows at a time from now on. I just did not have enough milk for everyone with just one cow and did not have enough left over for cheeses, so two will work better I think, especially as I can put all the beef cows on the grass across the way. And keep Daisy and the dairy cows here. Even so I will have to change this new heifer to a pasture diet slowly.. we will see. Around here they are appalled if you do not feed corn to the cows, they think they will die of malnutrition on pasture. Not my pasture though, this is the good stuff.. Anyway thank you for the link, i shall pop over and have a look.. c
I am so delighted to see that you registered with WWOOFUSA. You are going to get so much accomplished with your new friend, and now you have added another Farmy Friend to your community! That is going to be the route we go next summer, now that we have a bunkhouse and solar shower. I do love that piggy. Those roosters at least will earn their keep by feeding you this winter. I so want to taste that cultured butter! You’ll be sad to see Daisy’s milk come to an end. She has worked very hard for you all these years and now she will have another job. Everyone needs a purpose. Do you freeze your butter?
I will be sad to see Daisy finish milking, and need to learn more about your solar shower, i desperately want one.. c
That cultured butter sounds very moreish even to a non-butter [well, basically!] eater! How wonderfully interesting. Just for the hell of it, feel like trying 🙂 ! Sounds as if you are getting real practical help this week . . . great if jars of farm produce are going into the winter pantry!! And someone cluey enough to come with his own tent: sounds like a guy to have around!!!!!
Isn’t cultured butter the best?
I could almost taste that butter! And I actually thought, “hmmm….maybe if I went to visit the farmy and ate all of that wonderful cultured and homegrown food, my food allergies wouldn’t be an issue at all.” Ha. A eat anything you want vacation at your house. What a treat! 😉
So glad you have some help again. Every helper has their own passion, it seems. Between them you’ll probably have more things covered. The butter looks delicious.
I never knew what cultured butter was before! We are eagerly waiting for tomatoes to ripen, but we haven’t been getting enough sun.
Crikey, cows are expensive! Doesn’t that butter look amazing 🙂