Rochelle Bilow, food writer and associate web editor for Bon Appétit magazine spent a year living and working on a small sustainable farm in New York, and wrote about it in her recent book The Call of The Farm. Her novel is a testament to the heartfelt effort and passion of mucking through early attempts at career and love. Neither usually takes a direct path, but along the journey, we learn about ourselves. The book was a gift from a farm gal across the Atlantic named Imen. After falling in love with her Irish farmer, now husband, Imen left behind a career in television and film to commit to a new way of life. I'm a firm believer in the magic of starting over from scratch to reinvent oneself.
Rochelle Bilow recounts an especially humorous adventure on making butter for the first time. On the blog, Farmette, Imen's thought-provoking farm stories and yummy recipes are equally inviting. This is how it came to be that I should try my hand at homemade butter. The method is pretty straightforward and instructions abound on the internet, but if you remember shaking a jar of fresh cream in grade school until your arm ached, you already know how to make butter. I pulled out my speedy butter churner (Kitchen Aid mixer) and picked up some fresh cream at the nearby farm (local suburban market.) I tried one batch seasoned with lemon Falk salt crystals and the other with French grey salt. The final insignia of the swan was made using an antique wood butter mold, and the sweet buttermilk that separated during churning is for my morning coffee. Voila!
