Day 18 #100DaysOfOldDays

Have you ever milked a cow by hand? I did. Once, when I was very young. I think I managed to squeeze out about 10mls of milk, and the poor cow got annoyed with me. I was useless to her when all she wanted was relief from a full udder.

I stood back and watched my uncle doing it instead. Sitting on the low wooden stool, he milked two teats at a time. I was amazed at how fast the milk squirted into the galvanised bucket that sat between his legs, and how it frothed up as it filled with the warm fresh milk. It looked like cream to me and I pictured blobs of it in a bowl of jelly.

Even after milking machines were introduced to Ireland, some farmers—with maybe a herd of about 10—carried on milking their cows by hand.

The milk was poured from the bucket into a creamery can, which held 9, 10 or 12 gallons, and left sitting in the overflow from the spring well to keep cool.  

A man on a horse and cart, known as the carter, collected the creamery cans to take to the creamery. Each can had the farmers own number painted on it. 

Creamery cans are now a popular garden feature. Some people paint them in bright bold colours, while others have them shined them up to their original state. I’ve seen them used as flower pots too. My mam had one which was in perfect condition, but it was robbed from her garden by a thief in the night! (Among other things)

“Enter, stranger, but take heed
Of what awaits the sin of greed,
For those who take, but do not earn,
Must pay most dearly in their turn,
So if you seek beneath our floors
A treasure that was never yours,
Thief, you have been warned, beware
Of finding more than treasure there.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

That’s just a wee message for the thief!

This is an ornamental creamery can I have in my kitchen.