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Primal Diet / Re: Where can I get raw cream or butter shipped to me?
« on: June 06, 2012, 11:55:30 pm »
Charlie,
I have to agree with Dorothy. Making your own cultured butter is not only magical, it's actually kind of fun and satisfying.
I do mine with either a small hand butter churn (from Lehman's Non Electric's website) or with my stand mixer and the flat-blade attachment (I found that if I missed that 'break' point using the wisk attachment, my butter wouldn't "but" -- the whey would be beaten back into the cream and it wouldn't work well.
A couple of tips that work for me, down here in the deep south... make sure you chill your bowl. It helps the cream to coagulate. And know your farmer. One of the best investments I ever made in my health was visiting farms until I found a farmer that I could develop a relationship with.
Everything we start out on new is going to take some time, while we trek the 'learning curve' -- but it does get faster and easier. I used to have to spend hours in the kitchen every week to be able to prepare my food. Now, it takes me about 20 minutes, total, a day, plus about 2 hrs on the weekends, and 4 hrs once a month or so when I do heavy-duty stuff like butter-making or prepping veggies to start ferments. Grand total for the month, that's less than 20 hours a MONTH I spend on making sure I have healthy food. I work full-time, volunteer on the weekends, and am working on a novel and other craft stuff, as well as home care and other projects, but I think my health is worth this.
Another tip that made a big difference for me: Automate where you can -- prep stuff in advance for the week as much as possible, and rotate a small selection of meals during the week, so things become routine. Keep fancy stuff for weekends or vacations, when you have time to make them without stress, and enjoy eating them without stress, too. I only make butter on the weekends once a month -- but I make enough of it that it lasts me the whole month PLUS a little to stock up in my freezer.
In terms of finances, I've trimmed a lot of other areas of my life in order to be able to have the best possible food. Does it cost more? Yes, it does. I know, because I've done the one-to-one comparison -- but the difference in how I feel, and even how I interact in the world, is worth every single extra buck (or 50).
I guess what it boils down to is how much living a healthy, whole, sustainable life is worth to you, both in money cost and time cost -- if it's really valuable, then making homemade cultured butter is a reasonable option.
I have to agree with Dorothy. Making your own cultured butter is not only magical, it's actually kind of fun and satisfying.
I do mine with either a small hand butter churn (from Lehman's Non Electric's website) or with my stand mixer and the flat-blade attachment (I found that if I missed that 'break' point using the wisk attachment, my butter wouldn't "but" -- the whey would be beaten back into the cream and it wouldn't work well.
A couple of tips that work for me, down here in the deep south... make sure you chill your bowl. It helps the cream to coagulate. And know your farmer. One of the best investments I ever made in my health was visiting farms until I found a farmer that I could develop a relationship with.
Everything we start out on new is going to take some time, while we trek the 'learning curve' -- but it does get faster and easier. I used to have to spend hours in the kitchen every week to be able to prepare my food. Now, it takes me about 20 minutes, total, a day, plus about 2 hrs on the weekends, and 4 hrs once a month or so when I do heavy-duty stuff like butter-making or prepping veggies to start ferments. Grand total for the month, that's less than 20 hours a MONTH I spend on making sure I have healthy food. I work full-time, volunteer on the weekends, and am working on a novel and other craft stuff, as well as home care and other projects, but I think my health is worth this.
Another tip that made a big difference for me: Automate where you can -- prep stuff in advance for the week as much as possible, and rotate a small selection of meals during the week, so things become routine. Keep fancy stuff for weekends or vacations, when you have time to make them without stress, and enjoy eating them without stress, too. I only make butter on the weekends once a month -- but I make enough of it that it lasts me the whole month PLUS a little to stock up in my freezer.
In terms of finances, I've trimmed a lot of other areas of my life in order to be able to have the best possible food. Does it cost more? Yes, it does. I know, because I've done the one-to-one comparison -- but the difference in how I feel, and even how I interact in the world, is worth every single extra buck (or 50).
I guess what it boils down to is how much living a healthy, whole, sustainable life is worth to you, both in money cost and time cost -- if it's really valuable, then making homemade cultured butter is a reasonable option.