May’s Harvest of the Month: Dairy!

Watch these Fun on the Farm videos of Farmer Kelsey from Mapleview Dairy Farm in Madrid, NY as she talks about different technologies that they use on the farm.

GPS | Milk Truck | Pedometer | Operations | Ear Buttons

Do you think you can make butter in a jar? Try out the following activity to learn how butter is made and see how easy it is to make at home!

Please only participate in this activity if you already have heavy cream at home. We are not encouraging unnecessary trips to the store to purchase one ingredient to do this activity. Please do what you feel comfortable and have the means to do.

Here’s what you need:
• Heavy cream
• Jar with a lid

Here’s how to make it:
• Fill a jar halfway with heavy cream. Then, screw the lid on tight.
• Shake the jar up and down until the cream thickens and forms a ball. Continue shaking until liquid separates from the ball of butter. This will take a good amount of shaking, possibly even a few minutes, but stick with it. If you have other family members that can help – have them all take a turn.
• Once all the liquid has separated from the solid butter, open the jar, and pour the liquid into another container. The liquid is the buttermilk and you can use it for other cooking. The solid mass is butter.
• If you don’t plan to use your butter right away, rinse it under cold running water for several minutes while squeezing it to work out any remaining buttermilk. If a lot of moisture is left in the butter it will cause it to go bad faster. Be careful, sometime this can be messy!
• Add salt to the butter, if desired.

Instructions adapted from The Spruce Eats

For more information, visit http://essex.cce.cornell.edu/agriculture/farm-to-school

Written By: Meghan Brooks