Yesterday was the county fair, held in the equestrian centre just outside of town. My contribution on the day was to churn butter in the traditional way using a replica of a butter churn used in Iceland from Viking times to the early part of the 20th century. Next to me was Ásdís who was demonstrating the art of making skyr.
Our little set up, Eirikur and Eyþór getting ready for the days events. Brynja from the office baked rye bread the night before so that people could taste the butter on fresh home made bread. Needless to say this was much appreciated.
Ásdís starting the separation process. First you warm the raw milk then put it in the separator and turn...
On one side you get cream and on the other skimmed milk.
The day before she had made 8kg of skyr from 30 litres of milk. It´s a fairly simple process but time consuming.
Serious discussion regarding sheep and farming. Eyþór (on the left) was the mc for the day and walked around with a head set letting everyone know what would be happening next. As we were busy churning butter and cutting bread, we didn´t get to see too much.
However, I did manage to snap some shots for the ram judging competition.
This one is called Ostur (cheese) and he is from my Uncle's farm at Tunga.... such a sweety.
This one belongs to Fjóla - my work colleague..... he apparently scored well for being well behaved.
Eirikur (another work colleague) with his favourite ram.
Hrefna and Jón with their ram.... He wasn´t that keen on the walk to the judging area.
It was a great day. I churned 8 litres of cream into about 3kgs of butter. The cream was given to us from the local dairy - it was so good, very thick and probably had a higher fat % than the cream that I am used to using. This meant that towards the end of the churning process things got a tad hard. Had to enlist the help of fit and strong looking men as they walked past. It was quite amusing to see their faces when they realised how hard it really was. But, it was a hit, the butter tasted excellent and I had a great time - can't wait till next year!
6 comments:
Seeing everyone in your pictures wearing sweaters is killing me! Those milk separators are so cool. There is one out in front of an antique store across the street from where the Bluegrass pickers meet on the weekends. I've heard people trying to figure out what it is, most think it's something from a auto mechanic's shop for catching oil. LOL...
catching oil.. love it!
There were a heap of stalls selling sweaters and other knitwear... should have thought of you and taken some photos - will do so next time!
That looks like such fun. The animals are gorgeous. Did Henry go and see the show?
No, he didn't. I popped in for a bit and had a look around, but Henry was at home with his dad.
You'll be glad to know we're going out today to meet all the other babies in town!
The butter was lovely, by the way, Sigga!
x
Mmmmmmm butter!
I second that Maja...
Post a Comment