COUNTRY BUTTER IN THE MARKET

by Tom Kenny

There was nothing quite like the first bite and creamy taste of hand-churned country butter whether it was oozing and melting on your potatoes or spread on your bread. It was usually made in small batches, was rich and flavoursome and had an old fashioned taste, the way butter used to taste years ago.

When the cows had been milked, the cream would rise to the top of the milk. This was scooped off and placed in a separate dish. After a period of a few days, it would be put into a churn which was then worked by hand. There were different kinds of churn, the dash churn where the movement was up and down, the paddle churn which was operated by a handle, and the barrel churn: a barrel turned on its side with a crank attached which turned a paddle device inside the churn. When the churning had converted the cream into butter, the butter would be gathered leaving buttermilk at the bottom of the churn.  By not running the butter through more equipment, the fat was allowed to stay intact and provide more flavour. The butter would be mixed with salt and spring water and then patted into shape with special bats that looked a little like table tennis bats. Some women preferred to roll the butter and then cut off a section as they needed it. The buttermilk was a wonderfully refreshing drink after a day working in the fields.

The butter was eaten on the farm where it was produced, but if there was some left over, there was always a tradition of countrywomen bringing that butter into the Saturday market to sell in order to make a few bob. In the old days, they would wrap it in cabbage leaves, later they would use a kind of greaseproof paper to cover it. The Egg and Butter section of the market was usually held in Church Street, the women would stand there against the wall with their homemade natural produce which looked different to the factory processed butter, it had a different texture and was a little saltier depending on who you bought it from. Many of these women had their regular customers and some of them did not bother with the market but went directly to the buyer. Of course, for many, country butter was too rich and fattening and others simply did not like the taste and preferred the processed product.

The fresh eggs were carried into market in baskets which often had hinged lids. Most people who came to the market to buy had their own baskets or bags to carry their purchases home.

It was the Health and Safety people who finally put a stop to these country women selling their butter, insisting that their kitchens would have to be inspected, new machines installed and sanitised and very strict sanitary conditions applied. This meant that it simply was no longer worth it for the small amount of cash they made so those country butter ladies gradually faded into memory as they stopped coming in to the Saturday market, a sign of the changing times.

If you go to the Galway 2020 website, you can watch a 15 minute documentary about the history and changes in the Galway Saturday Market which has been made by Dawid Piotr Szlaga of Wild Island Pictures. It will be on that site until the end of the month and thereafter it can be seen on the Galway Market.com site. Well worth a look.