Today I was amused by the fact that my sister and her children decided to make butter- for fun. She asked me out of the blue if I had ever made butter. My reply was, “No, because I am not Amish.” Of course this is coming from the maker of the KoolAid pickles (and I swear I really will take pictures of them and post them). But I am not Amish, so I was merely telling the truth in addition to being sassy.
Needless to say, making butter apparently consists of placing heavy whipping cream in a jar and allowing your children to shake said jar into buttery goodness. Lisa (the aforementioned sister) said it was taking a long time (duh, we are talking about Amish fun here) so I suggested she try the blender or a mixer, to which my sister replied, “But they are having fun.” Which made me laugh. You see, my sister lives out in the country. I mean, the country. She is surrounded by cotton fields and not much else. So I could just imagine this family in the middle of nowhere, where shaking a jar is a hoppin night. “Hey Mama, can we shake the jar?” “No Shane, it’s the Lord’s day and you know we can’t have no jar shakin on Sunday.” “Aw Mama, we ain’t shook the jar in nigh up ta’ a month.” “Don’t matter son, maybe you can shake that jar tomorrow.”
Eventually my sister had to add a marble to the jar for extra friction (I’m sure this raised the Amish fun quotient considerably), but butter was indeed made. I have the pictures to prove it. Well, I saw the pictures to prove it. My sister Im’d them to me and has not posted them on her blog yet, so instead of pictures of the actual butter my sister and her kids made, you get this:
This is apparently actual Amish butter. I cannot attest as to whether it was made in a jar, or if it is any fun.
This is the first thing that came up on Google Images when I put in Amish fun. Need I say more about just how fun Amish fun is?
I believe this came up under "jar shaking butter" This is what one kindergarten class is learning about Amish fun. I wonder if you can get any of those butter making books on Amazon?
Now I just realized that my little vignette about jar shaking actually starred an Appalachian family. Here is a re-write with an Amish family instead.
“Mother, thee wouldst liketh to shaketh the jar.” “No Jebediah, though knowest it doth be the day of our Lord. There shalt be no shakething of the jar.” “But Mother, we hath not shooketh the jars for a fortnight.” “It matterth not, you mayest shaketh the jar on the morrow.”
And just for educational purposes (for never let it be said that this blog is not educational), here is a link to an article titled “Amish Fun” (I am not kidding).
http://www.east-buc.k12.ia.us/00_01/Ami/ah/ah2.htm
Happy Thursday! And don't forget to have some fun (even if it isn't Amish).
6 comments:
Okay, this post is why I love your blog. I accidently made butter once while trying to whip cream with an electic mixer thingy. It didn't actually make it all the way to butter, but it definately was not really cream anymore.
Yeah, I almost made butter when I tried to whip cream in my Magic Bullet Blender. Since then, my Magic Bullet has died. Sigh...I want to get another one. Man I loved that blender. Have you seen the infomercials? By the way, I am totally addicted to infomercials.
All through the first part of your blog I was thinking, "You have to put a marble in it." And then you said she put a marble in it, and at first I was like, "Shweew! Good, or else it would take forever." and then I thought, "Now what am I going to post?"---
Also, what do you mean you never made butter? Weren't you ever in 2nd grade? Didn't you ever study colonial or pioneer times?---
We made butter at Thanksgiving. Even with the marble it took way longer than the 5-10 minutes it was supposed to. Claire got bored WAY before it was actually butter. That was during a particularly ambitious time in my life- we also built a doll-sized log cabin out of sticks we gathered on nature walks after reading the Kirsten (Am. Girl) and Little House books.
Also, that kid must be Mennonite, just look at the wheels on his scooter. Maybe he's just from Ohio. They sometimes have a more flexible definition of Amish in Ohio.
I don't even know what a Magic Bullet Blender is. I try to stay away from infomercials. Plus, they always make Greg start to rant and then I get annoyed because I can't enjoy the commercial. Strangely enough, it's usually he who ends up buying something and it usually ends up being crap.
Renee, The Magic Bullet is AWESOME. Or at least I think it is. I don't have one. I have been waiting about 4 years for the price to go down and it never has. I finally bought one for my dad last Christmas, but I haven't had a chance to play with it myself. It's a mini, single serving size blender. For example, (acdg. to the infomercial) put in a chunk of cheese and a piece of jalapeno and give it 3 short taps to blend. Then put it in the microwave- yes, you can put it in the microwave- for 30 seconds and then pour over chips for instant gooey nachos. Not that I've that infomercial very much. (haha)
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