Churning time varies with the seasons, but one knows that the process is completed when the glass is clear. Open the lid, and there is butter and buttermilk. Then the butter must be processed in a 'butterworker', a special wooden table with raised sides and a frame which carries a roller up and down the table. A hole in the corner allows liquid to be drained off. The hand-operated wooden corrugated roller squeezes out some residual buttermilk, and water is used to remove remaining amounts.
Salt is added.
Further rolling ensures even consistency. One pound lumps are weighed out and shaped into rectangular blocks using special paddles. Families who produced a lot of butter had their own printed greaseproof paper which was ordered annually from Dublin. A number of regular customers, particularly the local policemen, called to buy each week. But 'though it may seem romantic in retrospect, it was hard work with a relatively modest return in the economic conditions of the '50's.