I wanted to give my kids some memories, a cool end result, AND (selfishly) to burn up some of their excess energy from being inside during the hottest part of the day. So last week, I decided that making butter in a jar was the best course of action.
I am not the most patient person in the world.
I knew this BEFORE I made the butter. And yet… chose to do it anyway.
We started out with 1 bottle of heavy whipping cream from Kroger. I poured half of the bottle into 2 jars, added the caps, and handed them to my kids Kade and Crysta (6 and 3 yrs old). Told them to shake, shake, shake and they’d get a surprise at the end.
My children are also not very patient… And both have their mother’s attention span, which seems to rival that of a goldfish. They would get about 2 or 3 good shakes in… and then they’d forget they were holding the jar.
Mom tried to alternate shaking with them. I thought that if I did one, the kids could manage to do the other. I was wrong.
So we made the decision to empty both the jars into a bowl and get out the hand mixer. And then mom doubted her ability to do it correctly. So we pulled up a youtube video on how to make butter with a mixer.
The kids thought that the bowl of buttermilk was apparently an invitation to dang near take a bath while I was mixing. Both hands in and faces covered as they’re trying to eat the missed butter curds out of their cupped hands… making a cute mess.
Finally got the butter done and the kids each stole a beater from the mixer and took off with it. Doing what kids do best in our household: creating chaos while exploring new things. Each declared the butter a success and we scooped it into an empty jar to store in the refrigerator.
What I Learned
- Patience really is a virtue and it can be taught if you work at it.
- It is okay to not know exactly how to do something.
- Let the kids see you make mistakes so they can learn that its okay.
- A little hard work creates amazing results.
- Try something new. You might be surprised!
- Just because it’s old-fashioned doen’t mean that it’s obsolete.
- It really is better if you make it yourself.
- It’s okay to make a mess. Let the kids make memories!
- The dog LOVES buttermilk. (Not really relevant but it surprised me!)
Will we choose to make butter again? Most definnitely! Will we do it in jars? Probably not. But this is defiinitely something that I think will help teach all of us to have some patience and also to appreciate the work that we put into something.
We might even start making it in bulk, if we can finnd a local source for the cream. Next on the list is to learn which herbs we like and make herbal butter and then to learn ways to use up the buttermilk!
Overall, it was a very fun experience and I can’t wait to make more memories like this with the kids!
What is something new that you have tried this year? How did it turn out?
If you haven’t already, be sure to check out our NEW Facebook Page Huckleberry Farms! Get daily posts about the goings on at the farm, funny memes, and information bites that can help you with your homestead journey!
