Sycamore Day Centre
Bread And Butter Making 21st Century Style Wednesday 29th August
A relatively new member of the day centre Mrs Anne Scruton, after discussions with her on the previous week about what she would like to do at the day centre, she said she would like to give a talk and demonstration on butter making but using a modern method i.e. using a large food mixer.
Her friend from one of the flats visited us in the afternoon and we discussed together how we would execute the activity.
Mrs. Scrutons’ friend who lives in Sycamore Hall was given the job of ordering 8 pints of cream from the local milkman and getting a receipt for expenses. She also loaned us her colander.
Mrs Scruton brought the butter pats, tea towels and a container to take home the waste buttermilk in to give to her neighbour to make soda bread.
I brought the large mixer and the other things we needed.
When we mentioned the butter making to the other members of the day centre another idea came up. Why don’t we make a loaf of wholemeal bread to go with it? Good idea! As we have not had time to purchase a breadmaker yet, I said we could use mine to have a go with.
Marjorie Heseltine was one of the members who had previously expressed a preference to have a go at breadmaking so she was given the chance to be the first guinea pig.
We invited residents from Sycamore Hall to join us for the afternoon. 22 people attended altogether.
The bread was made in the morning to allow time for it to rise and cook. Marjorie looked very professional in her white WI overall. The bread turned out absolutely perfect.
Anne set about making the butter at 1.30pm after everyone was seated for the demo. The butter was made in two batches. I think everyone was astonished at how the butter was made so quickly, bearing in mind a lot of the audience had in the past made their own butter in the old fashioned way with a churn.
Anne used butter pats to make it into nice blocks and then she and Marjorie wrapped it.
The bread was then cut into slices and buttered for the tasting. Verdict excellent, and when can we do it again, so we will.
To make the butter look professional labels advertising Sycamore Butter were made on the computer cut up by Dorothy and glued on to the finished butter. Wow! In fact someone who saw the butter thought we had been to the local dairy
The butter was so good that there was great demand for it. All the butter was sold at a very reasonable cost and the money covered our costs with a nice 18 pence profit.
20th century butter churn. How times have changed!!