Naughty Pussy-Cat.... :)

♫"Naughty pussy-cat
You know better than that!
You have butter on your whiskers,
Naughty pussy-cat!"♫

Hee-hee. That's a little song Mama used to sing to me when I would steal tastes of the butter. I used to love to taste it as a little girl! :D
Our dear friends gave us four gallons of raw cow's milk yesterday! :) What to do with it all? Well, of course we drank some of it, but I have it in my head that I want to make butter. I love any sort of "dairying" processes like cheese-making, ice-cream making, etc. but I have never (purposely) made butter. The only frustrating thing is that for some reason, people are fascinated with making butter in a blender. I mean, really? Have we gone so far from being able to do for ourselves that it is too taxing on our arms to shake a jar, if not work a butter dasher churn?
These are the kinds of butter churns I'd love to use:

Unfortunately, people consider it an antique or a specialty now, and so the price goes wayyyy up. :( But I am determined! I am looking up a recipe right now, and if I succeed, I will do a post about butter-making, as well as cheese-making, which I hope to do once the kids are weaned from our goat, Daisy. Mama ordered rennet and it came today! *Eek*! :)
And there is one plus that people overlook in making your own butter. It is described below from the book Adam Bede by George Eliot. Ahem:
"And they are the prettiest attitudes and movements into which a pretty girl is thrown making up butter; tossing movements that give a charming curve to the arm, and a sideward inclination of the round white neck: little patting and rolling movements with the palm of the hand, and nice adaptations and finishings, which cannot at all be effected without a great play of the pouting mouth and dark eyes. And then the butter itself seems to communicate a fresh charm; it is so pure, so sweet-scented it is turned off the mold with such a beautiful, firm surface, like marble in a pale yellow light."

See what girls are missing when the *buy* butter? ;) Well, I'm off to try my hand at butter-making and see if throws me into those "prettiest attitudes and movements". :P ~Rachel