How I make butter out of raw milk

I grew up on a farm where we had cows, horses, pigs, dogs and cats.  We even had sheep and chickens for a while.   I love that I grew up like that and I feel like I learned a lot from my parents having us work hard.  We had to help take care of the animals and we had our outside chores we had to do.  At the time I hated doing my chores but looking back I realize that I want my kids to have similar chores and responsibilities.

We had a milk cow and we would help my dad milk the cow.  I know that my dad used to milk all by hand but by the time I remember helping with chores we had a milker that did most of the work and we just had to finish up after the milker.  I remember squirting the cats with it and thinking it was hilarious.  I have always been a big milk drinker and have loved it.  I remember my mom making butter and yogurt from all of the milk we would get and I never really thought of it much until I became a mom.  A lot of things happen like this haha  I wish i could go back for a day and remember how my parents did things.

I am part of a group on Facebook that has a raw milk car pool.  They go and get approved raw milk from a semi local farmer.  Its about a 45 min drive but still somewhat close.  I decided that I wanted to start getting raw milk.  My kids are big milk drinkers as well and I think raw is so much healthier and better for you.  Raw milk is just more whole so our bodies are better able to digest it.  There have been studies that say there might even be a chance that drinking raw milk will help with allergies and asthma in children.  Another benefit is that some people have been known to not be able to tolerate the pasteurized milk but are able to drink unpasteurized raw milk.  

I love it because I grew up with it.  I love that I can make butter from the cream we get.  It makes me feel like a kid again to have this raw milk in the house.  I will say that raw milk has a very different taste than pasteurized milk.  When I was a kid it would taste like a cow smells to me.  Now it just taste different, not bad.  I think it just takes time to get used to it.

I make the butter by skimming off the cream from the top of the milk.  After you let it sit in the fridge for a few hours it will separate and you skim it off and I put it in my blender.   It takes about 5 min to turn it into butter and it separates into butter and butter milk.  

Then I take my strainer and put a paper towel in it to catch the butter and squeeze out the buttermilk left in it.   I put it into measuring cups so I know how much it is and then I plop it out onto a plate or something and put it in the freezer until its frozen then I throw  it in a zip lock bag.

I then used my butter milk left overs to mix into pancakes or anything that you would use milk for that cooks or something.  It just is pretty plain after you take the butter out of it.

I have loved it so far and hope to be able to continue to get it.  I like thinking my kids are getting better nutrition from drinking more raw milk and whole food in general.