Churning Butter with Lehman's Best

For years I have been oogling Dazey Butter churns in antique shops.  My love for old fashioned metal and glass kitchen implements nearly overcame my common sense on several occasions.  The older style butter churns have a wooden paddle and all I could think was: It will look great on the shelf but there is no way I would make butter in it because the paddle would never be clean enough for me!

Picture from DairyAntiques.com

Enter Lehman's Best Butter Churn.  Brand new and modelled after the Dazey it has a metal paddle and a glass jar base so it will still look pretty on the shelf and it will be clean.

Lehman's Best Butter Churn

Before we continue we should have the "Is Butter Better?" discussion.   You can read the more technical reasons by clicking on the link but my simple answer is:  In our family we eat real food as often as possible albeit in limited quantities so we eat butter.  We also choose coconut oil and olive oil in some cases but margarine - regardless of the hype - is not on the grocery list.

Here's a sample of the article referenced above:

It's no longer a secret that the margarine Americans have been spreading on their toast, and the hydrogenated fats they eat in commercial baked goods like cookies and crackers, is the chief culprit in our current plague of cancer and heart disease.But mainline nutrition writers continue to denigrate butter--recommending new fangled tub spreads instead. These may not contain hydrogenated fats but they are composed of highly processed rancid vegetable oils, soy protein isolate and a host of additives. 

A glitzy cookbook called Butter Busters promotes butter buds, made from maltodextrin, a carbohydrate derived from corn, along with dozens of other highly processed so-called low-fat commercial products.

Who benefits from the propaganda blitz against butter? The list is a long one and includes orthodox medicine, hospitals, the drug companies and food processors. But the chief beneficiary is the large corporate farm and the cartels that buy their products--chiefly cotton, corn and soy--America's three main crops, which are usually grown as monocultures on large farms, requiring extensive use of artificial fertilizers and pesticides. All three--soy, cotton and corn--can be used to make both margarine and the new designer spreads. In order to make these products acceptable to the up-scale consumer, food processors and agribusiness see to it that they are promoted as health foods. We are fools to believe them. 

The rest of the article is worth reading as well.

For my first butter churning event I chose to use 3 cartons of 35% Organic Meadow Whipping Cream - not exactly a financially sound way of doing things since my butter cost about $3.00 more than the equivalent amount of organic butter in the store but I consider $3.00 a good investment in my education.  

Churning took a little longer than I expected so after about a half hour while watching a movie I enlisted my sons help for a bit.  

I knew we were done when the the butter separated from the butter milk.  It's hard to see in the picture so just churn till your arm nearly falls off and you should be done!

Then I poured off the butter milk - saving it - and added cold water to the churn. I could hardly turn it at this point because the butter was getting really stiff.  I poured off the water again and dumped the remaining butter into a large bowl. Now it looked like butter.  I continued to rinse the butter with cold water using a large wooden spoon to press the butter against the side of the bowl to squeeze out any remaining buttermilk.  If the buttermilk doesn't get rinsed out the butter will sour very quickly.  This is the point when you decide if you want salted or unsalted butter - I added about a 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt.

When it was done I had two mugs of buttermilk and two small mugs of butter.  We did taste testing immediately.  The buttermilk tasted like regular milk which surprised me because the buttermilk of my childhood was thick and NOT-MY-FAVORITE.

The butter tasted great - just like butter should - amazing isn't it.  I kept thinking about the many times I have had whipped cream on something...it's kinda like eating pie with a 1/2 pound of butter on top - ha.   

Of course you could skip the fancy churn and just put the cream in a large glass jar with a tight fitting lid and shake it for 1/2 hour or do what the early cowboys did - put the jar in their saddle packs and by the end of a long day of riding the butter would be churned!...of course that would require buying a horse so maybe the butter churn was a cheap way to go after all!

So perhaps the real question is - Why bother making your own butter?  Besides the educational value of knowing that cream turns into butter and that organic grass-fed resulting butter is nutritionally superior to margarine (and even conventional butter) and besides that it was a fun experiment...

...It's one of the things I'll need to know how to do when we buy a cow or start milking the sheep - and DH I'm only half kidding.  I wonder if cows come in white with red spots?

EAT-TO-THE-BOTTOM-OF-THE-FREEZER challenge

Ahh January - my least favorite month of the year.  Generally speaking I don't feel the need to escape anywhere - I just simply don't want to go outside any more than absolutely neccesary - like not even to the grocery store. The out-of-doors is cold and snowy and icy and I would rather be warm, drinking tea and reading a good gardening/farming/how to raise better chickens book. It's has therefore become my annual EAT-TO-THE-BOTTOM-OF-THE-FREEZER-MONTH.

This is also my reality check whilst I am reading seed catalogues.  Every year I fall in love with all the pretty pictures - things like kaleidoscope swiss chard are just so enticing but what does one actually DO with swiss chard.  It's one of those things that end up at the bottom of the freezer in little plastic baggies that in their frozen state could easily be mistaken  for rhubarb - I can assure you it does not taste like rhubarb no matter how much sugar you add!

I used to have a chest freezer for my main freezer. We put it on cement blocks when we moved here because of it's location in a basement - better safe than sorry if the basement ever flooded because there's no moving a full freezer in a hurry.  The extra height made it next to impossible to deal with the contents on the bottom even for a tall person like myself - after the first foot or so - food just disappeared into the black pit never-to-be-seen-again.

My least favorite month is also usually a lean one for our family - it seems our business invoices get buried on someone's desk around Christmas time and they don't get un-buried (and therefore paid) until February.  This has led to some of the most creative meals I have ever put together being presented for our dining pleasure in the cold month of January.  It's a good thing stews, chili and soups are comfort foods designed for this time of the year. They are tailor-made for hiding items like swiss chard- we don't really EAT swiss chard I just spend my time using every trick I know figuring out how to get rid of it!

Every EAT-TO-THE-BOTTOM-OF-THE-FREEZER-MONTH  challenge is different.  Some years we did it out of sheer financial necessity and others out of a desire to save money for something else but the rules were mostly the same - no shopping at the grocery store except for fresh fruit and veggies.  It's become a habit - a good one I think.  I remember nearing the end of one of our challenges and finding several bars of good chocolate - no doubt put away for a special recipe at Christmas and forgotten - after a month without easy access to store bought treats we all agreed it was heavenly!

We recently bought a more energy efficient upright freezer - oh what a glorious improvement on both fronts!  It saves us money on electricity and you can actually see what's in it - imagine that!  But the EAT-TO-THE-BOTTOM-OF-THE-FREEZER challenge will remain for old-times sake and because I've grown to love the challenge of it.

Now back to my cup of tea and my Veseys seed catalogue.  Oohhh look... wouldn't you know it - they now have one called Rhubarb Organic Swiss Chard...and aren't those Bulls Blood Organic Beets beautiful!!

A Price book

We have a large number of teenagers and young adults that stay with us for periods of time.  Teenagers eat a lot.  Like hollow legs and empty pits they are always looking for something to fill them up.  So having a large pantry means that I know I can handle kids and company without having to wonder if I can afford to feed them or whether all I have to give them is my last can of lima beans - which they are more than welcome to - lima-beans-aren't-my-favourite!  That's the polite way of expressing your dislike of any food in this house - you're not allowed to say I hate it!


A common statistic tells us that the average person has three days of food in the house.  I can't quite imagine it.  I don't like shopping so much that I would want to go every three days and I KNOW me - without a list and a plan I would spend waaaaay too much money...and yet the reason I hear the most often why people don't have food storage is that they can't afford it.  Money can be an issue when you're trying to stock up but like any issue in life it all comes down to priorities and choices.  We decided this was a priority.  Like health insurance or life insurance - food insurance makes sense to me.


I've written before about my belief in a large pantry and why I have one - teenagers and company being only one of the reasons (how about temporary job loss, the ability to bring a family in need a meal on the spot, or the security of knowing that as prices rise you have grocery insurance)  http://adventures-in-country-living.blogspot.com/2011/09/stocking-large-pantry-food-storage.html but now I want to share the method I use to build my food storage pantry that's really simple and saves me money. 


I figured out that we are creatures of habit and I suspect most of us are the same.  We eat the same meals over and over with a few exceptions.  This is GREAT news for food storage because it makes it less complicated to figure out what you need to stock up on.


I'll use Spaghetti and meatballs in this example.  First I break down the whole meal into ingredients.


So for one meal I would need:
2 cans of pasta sauce
1 package of pasta
1 tsp. of Italian spices
1/4 cup of parmesan cheese
1 box meatballs (frozen or home canned for this example)


So to make this meal 6 times I would need a case of 12 pasta sauce, 6 packages of pasta, a few Tbsp of Italian seasoning and maybe a whole container of parmesan if someone gets a little shake-happy with the container.


Average regular prices for
pasta sauce - $1.99 for the canned stuff
pasta - over $2.00 a package
Italian spices - negligable
1 container of parmesan $8.00
6 boxes or other of frozen meatballs - anywhere from $6-10 depending on brand which is why it's a great idea to make your own but that's another post.

If you chose 6 more meals like the one above you would soon have more than a months' worth of dinners in your pantry! 


So we know the regular prices but what we need to know is what the best sales prices are.  This is where the PRICE BOOK comes in. It is simply a way of tracking the lowest price on a specific item and also keeping track of when it went on sale and which store had it on sale.


All stores have seasonal sales - canned pumpkin is more often on sale in the fall when pumpkins are plentiful and Thanksgiving and Christmas create a demand. Stores also have rotating sales - for example cheese goes on sale every 6 weeks around here. The regular price could be anywhere from $7-9 dollars for a 500gr. brick of Black Diamond cheddar however it regularly goes on sale for $4.44  and sometimes there's a really great deal at $3.97. I buy enough for my family to last till the next sale and I always eat "on sale" cheese. The price book tells me what is a good price, what is a great price and approx. how long I will have to wait till the next sale.

So let's say we eat a brick of cheese a week and the sale cycle is 6 weeks long.  I would need 6 bricks of cheese.  At the regular price of $7.00 a brick I would pay a total of $42.00.  At the sale price of $4.44 I would pay $26.64.  When it's on a sale for $3.97 - only $23.82.  That would save me at least $20.00 on cheese alone.  Of course not eating so much cheese would help too!!


The same idea works for canned or boxed or frozen food we used in the spaghetti and meatballs example above.  I know I can save at least 40% on the spaghetti and meatballs meal by using my price book, buying when items are on sale and not paying full price.


Getting started requires a little extra thought and rearranging of your grocery spending.   I suggest you add another $20.00 to your food budget if you can and then use the savings to build up a larger amount that will be on hand to make purchases by the case.  It will take some time but eventually you will be eating most food items that have been bought on sale! The Price Book will also help you to not be easily deceived by advertised specials.  Just because the item is on the end-cap with a big red sticker doesn't mean it's a great deal.


Here's what to do:
• Start by saving all of grocery store receipts.  Keep them all in one place and after several weeks you'll be able to see what you buy regularly.
• Purchase a small three-ring notebook or binder. Something that fits in your purse or your pocket is the right size or perhaps a section of a daytimer if you carry one.
• Use you most repeated meals to make your initial list for your price book. No sense knowing the price of canned pumpkin if you never eat it or the cost of a box of salt that you buy once every two years..
• Start a page for each major category. Keep it simple at the beginning - you can add more pages later. Canned Food, Boxed Food, Fresh Fruits, Vegetables, Meat, Dairy Products, and Snacks.
• Create columns for listing your comparison information. You not only want to compare price but also keep track of which store offers that price. It should look like this.

Store Name	Brand/Size	Unit Price	Sale price	Date of Sale
No Frills	Black Diamond 500gr.	.88/100gr.	$4.44	October 6-12
Superstore	Black Diamond 500gr.	.79/100gr.	$3.97	Nov. 18-24

• Most grocery stores have the unit price displayed on the scanner code below the item on the shelf - save your brain and make use of them!
• Bring your Price Book with you when you go shopping.
• When you see something on sale that you eat regularly buy extra.  A few cans or a few cases depending on your budget and how much you want to store.
• Continue to save your grocery receipts and use them to update your Price Book.  I've noticed the cost of food rising more because of what I've written in my price book than anything else!
• All stores have loss leaders and special sales so there really isn't one store that can be the cheapest all the time.  Don't let their marketing convince you that you need to stay loyal to that particular store - I am loyal to the particular price.


Combine the Price Book idea with some Menu planning and you have a winning combination..

Stocking a large pantry - food storage.

Maybe I just read too many books as a kid about Pioneers, WW2 and other world events that left people to their own devices for long periods of times but I REALLY like having a large pantry.  It seems I am not the only one -  there is a huge movement of people these days who call it Food Storage. 

It used to be common-practise to spend the summer and fall puttin-by food for the winter and spring from huge gardens and stocking up on staples from the general store. They also devised ways to store food and keep it from spoiling like salting, curing, smoking, root-cellaring, drying and later freezing and canning. No one would have been shocked to find a large store of foods in every home back then.  In fact it would have seemed very foolish to not do so.   

Today we have stores and food in abundance, food is available from multiple sources - grocery stores, convenience store, farmers markets - you can even purchase food online!  Having more than a few days of food in your kitchen cupboards would seem odd to many people - even criminal to some - how far we've come in only 50 years!  Progress right??  Right?? 

Really? 

We are accustomed to the bounty in the grocery store where it is quite rare for them to be "out" of something.  We have what-looks-on-the-surface like a fool-proof system of food supply and delivery.  But do we?  Do you realise that the average grocery store has three days of food on hand and without re-supply the shelves would be bare in three days?  With the introduction of the Just-In-Time delivery systems they no longer have back rooms filled with extra supplies.  A big snow storm in the immediate area or a hurricane coming up the coast can empty store shelves as people stock up on necessary supplies at the last minute. There have been many documented instances when this system has let us down already.  It is only a matter of time before it happens again. 

The ever-increasing cost of groceries is also an issue that many of us face in our shopping adventures.  Prices have certainly gone up in the past few years and what used to be regular prices are now sale prices. 

So - what kind of food storage am I talking about?   I know people who say they shop every day - wow!   Just the temptation to impulse-buy would be huge for me.  A three day supply of food - which is the national average for most families - is not enough either in my opinion.

My personal goal is have at least 6 months of food storage.  That may seem like a lofty goal when you've never given it much thought before.  We've found that our food storage has allowed us to buy in quantity on sale and save us money.  It has also been there over the years when the month was longer than the money or we had unexpected guests.  It became a necessity when there were 7 of us living at home just to keep the food budget under control.  It is also peace-of-mind to know you don't have to run to the grocery store for something essential because you already have 2 or 3 of them stored away.

I began by looking at our most common meals - we really are creatures of habit so the foods we eat are similar in the seasons.  In the winter for example we frequently eat the following:

SUPPERS for winter months

1. Beans and rice (or riced cauliflower) with Jerusalem artichokes, onions, kale

2. Chicken soup and biscuits, celery, onion, green pepper, rice pasta, kale

3. Tacos or burritos with lentil "meat", sour cream, cheese, salsa and salad

4. Sub sandwiches with sliced meat, cheese, lettuce, onions, dressing, mayo

5. Meatball stew with potatoes, frozen beans, onions, carrots, arrowroot powder

6. Pasta and sauce with mixed dehydrated veggies and salad

7. Shepherds Pie, potatoes, frozen veggies, lentils or hamburger (use JA's for potatoes and/or part cauliflower & lamb)

8. Tortilla Strata, tortillas, sour cream, cheese, eggs

9. Vegetable Soup with rice, cabbage, celery, kale

10. Beef or lamb  burgers, salad, homemade fries

11. Salad and beans, nuts & seeds mix, fruit, apple cider vinegar, olive oil

12. Lasagna vegetarian, spinach, cottage cheese, cheese, onions, garlic (organic yogurt)

13. Frittata, egg, onion, cheese, green pepper, garlic, frozen veggies

14. Chili, veggies, beans, tomatoes, sauce with biscuits

15. Homemade pizza, sliced meat, sauce, cheese, green peppers

16. Roasted potatoes, chicken, broccoli, vegetables

17. Pizza Rice Casserole, lamb burger, sauce, cheese

After making a list like this it was easy to see which specific foods we needed to store.  Using the information to make a price book (posted above) gave me the information I needed to know when an item is a great deal (relatively speaking:) )  Then when I shopped I started buying 2 or 3 of several items. By getting one or 2 extra of each item I soon had enough food stored to make a month worth of suppers.  I repeated the process for lunch and breakfast giving some consideration to the fact that oatmeal was a much cheaper breakfast food than boxed cereal and it was easier to store in bulk.

I store boxes and cans on shelves and dried grains, beans etc. in large glass jars or in vaccumed sealed mason jars.  This makes it easy to find and use.

Maybe I was born in the wrong century but it seems to make a lot of sense to me. We buy car insurance and house insurance and hope we'll never really need to use it.  This is food insurance.

How about you?  How long would your pantry last?