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Community Corner

Simple Pleasures

Kids make butter at the Harvest Festival at Marin Country Mart

It was a beautiful fall Saturday at the Marin Country Mart Farmers Market.  Many families and their children joined in the Harvest Festival fun.  There was a pie baking contest, lavender sachet making, apples were being pressed into cider, and Meloni Courtway, of Courtway Catering, was there to show kids how to make butter.  

Children of all ages gathered around the Courtway Catering table, to experience the fun of making butter, by shaking heavy whipping cream in small mason jars.  There was also an old fashioned hand powered crank butter churn that kids took turns churning, to eventually make a large jar of butter. 

Haden, 4, and his brother, Luke, 2, loved churning the butter.  When I asked Haden why he liked the farmers market so much, he said, “…because I make BUTTER!” 

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Julia, 6, from Petaluma, came to the Harvest Festival because, as she told me, “It’s so much fun!”  As she was taking her turn at churning, the soon to be butter, I asked her what she like about making butter and she said, “…because you can put it on bread and pasta and anything!”  

As Julia continued to churn the butter, she reported, “It’s still liquid…”  Then she saw her mom approaching and shouted, “I’m making butter!!”  She asked her dad to help and in a few more minutes butter was made and Julia happily exclaimed, “WOW!”

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Then she spread the newly made fresh butter on little pieces of bread and gave them to her mom and dad, and of course, enjoyed some herself.  Her father was heard saying, “Oh, she’s in heaven.”

Julia’s mother told me, “Butter is Julia’s favorite food of choice.”  When Julia was younger her mom found a bite taken out of a stick of butter.  And, Julia was named after Julia Child. 

Alaina, 4 ¾, was there with her brother, Benjamin, 2.  As she was churning butter and Benjamin was shaking his mason jar, she told me she made a pie for the competition.  The name of the pie was Pink Peach Pie with Love.  She had a lot of fun making the pie with her mom and friend.  

All the kids loved shaking the small child friendly mason jars, with the hopes of seeing butter.  There was so much excitement as they saw their cream transform into butter before their very eyes. 

This simple activity brought so much joy and pleasure to these little ones.  The smiles and shrieks of surprise filled the air, as children once again remind us…to take pleasure in the simple things in life.  

Until next Wednesday, remember, it’s all “for the love of kids…”

In joy, Marilyn

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