How The DIY Butter Trend Got Churning
Artisanal food fever is raging, and the latest sign is the rise in sales of old-fashioned butter churns.
Purveyor Glenda Lehman Ervin of Lehman's sells old-timey kitchen gadgets online and at her family's store in Kidron, Ohio. She says the clientele is quite diverse. "There are lots of people interested," she says.
It's not just homesteaders, hipsters and do-it-yourself-minded foodies getting in on the hands-on pursuit.
This hobby has now spread to 40-something suburbanites, as I learned a few weeks back when I received an email invite to a butter-churning party.
Bring the kids, and bring your own cream (BYOC), the note said. The host, my friend Jerry Casagrande, promised ping-pong too, perhaps in anticipation that the churning might get old quick.
Now, if you listen to my story, you'll appreciate that the technical feat of turning cream into butter is not much of a feat — if you follow the directions.
One of the most important make-or-break steps is the 15 to 20 minutes of continuous, vigorous churning, which entails cranking a handle. This can be a real work out for the arms — if you actually stick with the task. "It gets tiring," Casagrande, the butter-churn owner said. "That's why it's good to have a butter-churning party."
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