[SallyintNorth]

Do you think a Jersey would survive in Wales?

Well I was working on a farm in Ceredigion when I concluded that it was definitely a Jersey I wanted.  Mind, all their cows were wintered in sheds, the Jerseys and the suckler herd.

Jerseys don't have a great deal of hair, so prolonged wet weather will get to them if they haven't really good shelter.  I suspect your climate and conditions are no worse than ours.  Hillie went out most days throughout the winter, only being kept in if it was truly awful.  She came in at night until the warmer weather arrived.

DH says I can't get a cow until I retire as he's not going to milk it while I'm at work

It now takes me 30 mins to milk her, including fetching her in, feeding her, cleaning and milking her, setting the calf on, filtering and storing the milk, taking the calf back, cleaning her udder and putting her out again.  If you worked it so she kept her own calf with her, or took a set-on, you could organise it so you only milked her yourself once a day.  Just a thought... 

[jaykay]

I milk my goats in the morning only, cos I work. So i separate the kids at night, milk in the morning  (I use a hand pump into a bottle, so not even any filtering, bottle goes straight into fridge), and then leave the kids with mum all day. Gives them all a nice time, helps the kids grow well and means I don't have to worry about what time i gt home from work. 

Could be done 

[princesspiggy]

Do you think a Jersey would survive in Wales?

a friend of mine used to have jersey as a house cow and wer in NE scotland. i presume it wud have been in all winter.

[ellied]

Sounds great - I nearly made butter by mistake overwhisking the cream but didn't know what to do with it after the whisking bit - from the sounds of it nothing other than eat it could be an option?! 

So how are you supposed to "work it" - rinsing the scrambled egg stage in water in a colander until it runs clear sounds ok but then what?

And what do you do with the first liquid that comes off (buttermilk/whey or what?)..

I might try this with commercial cream or full fat milk to get a technique but one day who knows..

[melodrama]

When I made it, I rinsed until clear (I never kept the buttermilk but I suppose in theory you could) and then kept squashing it all together with my fingers as more buttermilk came out then.  I just kept doing that until there was no more liquid - didn't take too long and then into the tupperware box it went - was delicious!

[SallyintNorth]

If it was a very thick cream to begin with you can just eat it or cook with it straight away, yes.  If you want to keep it, or the cream was thinner / milky, you should get buttermilk coming separately - this is beautiful to drink (skimmed milk but oh so very tasty) and wonderful to use in baking; I make scones and soda bread and get lots of compliments!

My process, for butter to last a few days, is as follows:

• skim off the cream into a jar
• shake the jar till the 'scrambled eggs' forms and the buttermilk separates (with my Jersey cream this takes about 10 minutes)
• strain the butter, retaining the buttermilk for drinking / cooking
• wash the butter a few times till the water is clear (pig gets first wash water - still buttermilky)
• I don't add salt, but I'd do it now if I did
• 'work' the butter - I bought some Scotch Hands and these are great.  You want the water to come out and you want the texture to become, well - more like butter!  Do this somewhere cool or you can get the butter starting to melt, which you don't want
• pot up and keep somewhere cool.  It will freeze if you want to store some for later
• enjoy!

It really is quite simple and the taste is tremendous.  We wouldn't go back to shop-bought butter now.