Today, I was delighted to give a presentation to the local homeschool group that meets at the Lake Travis Community Library. I talked about cultured dairy, and the students created homemade butter during the homeschool event. (Or since we’re in Central Texas, maybe I should say homeschool shindig!)
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Homeschool Event Talking About Traditional Foods
You may recall I gave a presentation at the Lake Travis Community Library last year when my bestselling book, The Modern Pioneer Cookbook, was selected as the 2023 Lake Travis Reads selection. What an honor that was!
This time, I was invited back to give a presentation to homeschool parents and their children interested in learning how to make traditional foods. (I want to give a big shout-out to the Youth Services Librarian, Nicholle Halprin, who invited me to be part of her library homeschool program!)
The parents were thrilled to learn about my recently released FREE Modern Pioneer Cookbook Curriculum for grades K-12. This curriculum assists parents and educators so that they can use my cookbook as a textbook, along with the lesson plans contained in the curriculum, to teach their children how to make traditional foods and learn lifelong skills of self-sufficiency.
Get Started with The Modern Pioneer Cookbook Curriculum Flyer
To help parents and educators learn how to get my cookbook curriculum, I created the Get Started with The Modern Pioneer Cookbook Curriculum Flyer.
You can use this flyer to help you with the initial curriculum steps. You can also print out the flyer to share at events with your homeschool or educator groups.
Making Butter and Tasting Cultured Butter
What a fun event this was! I brought two types of butter made from cultured cream, one salted variety and the other unsalted. I also displayed two bottles of real buttermilk, showing how it looked before and after its culturing period.
Then Nicholle gave every child (and the moms, too!) a bottle filled with some cream. She instructed everyone to vigorously shake their bottles until the cream formed into a ball of butter surrounded by buttermilk.
After about 5 minutes, every child had turned their cream into butter and now know how easy it is to make real butter and REAL buttermilk! Plus, everyone got to take a taste test of their homemade butter along with the two cultured homemade kinds of butter I had brought.
Seeing the children’s faces light up was so enchanting as they spread their homemade butter onto bread and took a big bite. This activity was definitely a hit! One sweet little girl even exclaimed that this was the best activity she had ever attended… “in all her life!” 😉 The homemade cultured butter was also popular, with children enjoying some straight off their plastic butter knives!
The Benefits of Butter
When one child shared with me that she could eat butter all day long, it warmed my traditional foods heart! Butter is incredibly rich in vitamins, including A, E, B12, and the elusive vitamin K (K2), which can be hard to obtain in our modern diets.
However, an ample supply of vitamin K2 is especially important for inclusion in the diets of growing children because it plays a critical role in developing strong bones.
Learn How to Make Cultured Dairy
Have you tried making homemade butter? And even better, how about homemade cultured butter? Of course, any type of butter is delicious and rich in good, nutrient-dense fats.
However, if you take one easy step, you can culture your cream and then use your cultured cream to make cultured butter that is rich in probiotics. This good bacteria keeps our digestive tracts healthy, and a healthy digestive tract leads to overall good health!
In my cookbook, I share how to make cultured cream, cultured butter, and real cultured buttermilk. You can also watch my cultured butter recipe video on YouTube. Once you learn how to make homemade butter—either plain or cultured—it will be hard to go back to buying commercially made butter again. I’m sure the enthusiastic children would agree with you after their tasty experience today!
So be sure to try your hand at making homemade butter, and if you do, be sure to tag me on Instagram @marysnest . I can’t wait to see your success!
Stay in Touch with Mary’s Nest
- Subscribe to My YouTube Channel for Traditional Foods Videos (Free) - When you subscribe, be sure to click on the notification bell that will let you know each time I upload a new video.
- Subscribe to Mary’s Traditional Foods Newsletter (Free) - Get a free 36-page eBook for signing up: How to Stock Your Essential Traditional Foods Four-Corners Pantry.
- Join the Traditional Foods Kitchen Academy (Optional Paid) - For more detailed videos and exclusive members-only perks, join my YouTube membership community.
- Order The Modern Pioneer Cookbook (Optional Paid) - Get a printed book of Mary's nourishing recipes from a Traditional Foods Kitchen. This bestselling cookbook is published by Penguin Random House with their DK imprint.
I look forward to having you join me in my Texas Hill Country Kitchen!
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Get up to 15% off for stocking your Traditional Foods Pantry and equipping your Modern Pioneer Kitchen, including discounts from US Wellness Meats, Farmhouse Teas, Lehman's, Masontops, Cultures for Health, Survival Garden Seeds, Redmond Real Salt, Plan to Eat, and More!
