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How to Use a Cream Separator

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    Greetings! Today we’ll take a look at how to use this Ukrainian cream separator. If you’re dealing with goats and decide you want to make cream or butter you’ll find this common model of cream separator on Amazon. It’s good quality and a great price, around $130. The only problem? All my directions came in Ukrainian! It comes with a whole lot of pieces to assemble and it took me awhile to figure out, so I’ll share it here in hopes that it may speed up the process for some of you.

    NOTE: Please watch the above video tutorial. Text alone will not make much sense, as most of the assembly instructions rely on visual instructions.

    First off, you’ll need to put oil in via the spout on the base of the separator. I used 3-in-1 oil, about half a bottle. This is not something you’ll have to do each time; I’ll probably check on the oil again in about a year.  Then there’s a part with  two silver things and lots of cone-shaped discs, which is probably the most expensive and the most important part of the machine: the centrifuge. There are about twelve of cones and they all slide onto the centrifuge. Then I close it up again. You can see that there’s a rubber seal inside and it also came with a rubber seal for the outside, but I found that that actually hinders my process, so I took that off. I still have it in the bag, but I do not use it. So once you stack the twelve cones you set the top piece back down. Reassemble to centrifuge according to instructions in video above.

    Place milk and cream spouts on top of the centrifuge. They have are designed to fit together flush. So, we’ve put our oil in, then we put together the centrifuge on top, and lastly we have put our two little spouts. 

    Place red funnel-shaped piece on top with white disc inside (see video). Place clear plastic milk funnel on top (note how the hole has a notch. You will have to line up the hole in the plunger with this notch to allow milk to pass through). Make sure hole is closed initially, keeping track of how much you will have to turn it to open once the milk has been added. You do not want the milk to go down the hole until the centrifuge is spinning at 1 revolution/second (60 revs/minute). Finally, attach the handle.

    I have screwed the cream separator onto a board. This way someone can help to hold the board down while I’m busy cranking. Another option is to screw it directly onto a table, if there is a place you could permanently keep your cream separator.

    Place receptacles under the skim milk and cream spouts. If you are using cold milk, heat it to about 90′ F before pouring it into the cream separator.  Now begin to crank! It’ll take a bit until you work up to one revolution per second. Once you’re there you can turn the plunger to open up the hole and allow milk into the centrifuge. Skim milk will begin to come out of one spout and shortly after, cream from the other.

    Once you finish make sure the clean the machine well. You’ll find foam and cream in the different parts of it. Check out the video to see where to expect a lot. So clean everything well, set the pieces out a towel to dry for an hour or two, and then put your cream separator away.

    Now you too can use your Ukrainian cream separator. Go for it and separate cream!

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    Atitlan Organics blog

    Studying Permaculture and Natural Building in Guatemala offers amazing opportunities to learn from indigenous cultures, rich natural patterns, and enormous diversity. Permaculture in Central America is representative of the edge effect or Edge Valuing Principle of Design. As one of the world’s centres of biodiversity, Central America attracts people from all over the world interested in learning through nature. Permaculture practices and sustainable building designs can be seen in action via the surviving indigenous traditions that are common in Guatemala. Studying permaculture and natural building in Central America offers designers great opportunities to learn from diverse groups of people in incredibly diverse natural settings.

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    Born and raised in the town of Tzununa, which lies right below Atitlan Organics, Nicholas and Shad have worked since Day 1, helping to craft the this amazing landscape. Nichloas is a supreme ninja farmer with skills beyond explanation. Visitors are endlessly impressed with his resourcefulness, ingenuity, and sheer motivation. Nicholas now owns and operates Las Ensaladas de Atitlan Organics, a business that sells organic produce to over 50 restaurants, hotels, and stores around lake Atitlan.

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    Neal is originally from Ireland. He grew up on a dairy farm and has been around animals all his life. He studied agriculture in Ireland and has worked as a permaculturist for the past 10 years. Neal was the Volunteer Manager at Atitlan Organics for 2 years before co-founding his own Permaculture-based enterprise, Abundant Edge Farm, in Tzununa. He brings a wealth of experience, enthusiasm, and energy into each Intro to Permaculture Course and Permaculture Design Certification Course and we’re happy to continue to collaborate with him!

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    Through his extensive work with Indigenous communities on traditional ecological knowledge, seed saving, native plants, local/global food movements, livelihood security, and the interaction between communities and the environment, he has made a key contribution to the empowerment of Indigenous people around the world. Rony is a co-founder of IMAP.

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    Hailing from Ottawa, Canada where he and his partner run the 50-acre Kula Permaculture Farm, Zach brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the course. He works as an educator, designer, consultant and farmer, with an emphasis on integrating diversity, conserving soil and maximizing farm ecosystem services while maintaining high productivity.

    Last year Zach published The Permaculture Market Garden, which explores ways that permaculture can be scaled up be a profitable whole-systems enterprise. Zach is a leading figure in permaculture, who brings a new and exciting vision of how it can be integrated into the wider community and marketplace.

    Ashley McDonnell

    Ashley’s work focuses on resurrecting our relationship to the natural world through the development of earth based skills that deepen our connection to place while increasing our sense of sovereignty and resilience. Devoted to the arts of permaculture, natural building, herbalism and birth work as her mediums, Ashley explores with humility the diverse modalities that support us in living in right relationship with the world around us. She views permaculture as a practice that not only creates healthy ecological communities but one that helps to reweave the very fabric of who we are as people. Her work is an offering to the future.

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    Holly fell in love with yoga because of the sense of connection she felt every time she came to her mat. She began teaching yoga in Chicago in 2011. Her desire to deepen her teaching and personal practice led her to continue her yoga education in California, Bali, Australia and Guatemala. Holly now travels around the world teaching yoga and facilitating yoga teacher trainings. She enjoys helping new teachers sequence yoga classes and incorporate philosophy into their teachings. Her classes are creative and dynamic with an emphasis on making yoga accessible to everyone.

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    Sarah is a clinical herbalist of 20 years, studying and practicing planetary eclectic, regenerative herbalism with a foundation in Wise Woman Reclaiming philosophies. Influenced by global traditions, Sarah focuses on local food-based healing and ethnobotanical traditions. She leads trainings and workshops in herbal medicine, Permaculture Design Courses, Therapeutic Deep Ecology, Social Permaculture, field-to-the-plate holistic nutrition, herbal first aid and Tarot. She is a passionate mentor and educator, who believes in the teacher’s role in unlocking the innate wisdom of the student. Sarah is the co-founder of the Village Witches project, and is a Co-Founder and Co-producer of Envision Festival.

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    Jeremy has focused ten years of study, mentorship and implementation of permaculture design systems back home in Massachusetts. With many years of experience in botany and horticulture, he is fascinated by the world of plants. After working many years in Guatemala, Jeremy has dedicated his focus to land and water management systems that lend to ecological acceleration and social integration through food production. Jeremy now runs granja tzikin, works as a designer and consultant with Regenera and teaches in the Atitlan Organics teachers guild.

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    Julia is an international yoga teacher, birth doula, women’s health advocate, and closet artist who is passionate about health, environmentalism and empowered birth. She is co-creator of the Sacred Birth Yoga & Doula Training, is founding director of Awakened Spirit Yoga and co-founder of the Wellkind Foundation, a non-profit that focuses on community empowerment and wellbeing through the lens of permaculture. She also created the Sacred Earth Yoga Training, the first yoga teacher training program that combines yoga, mindfulness, permaculture and leadership to transform lives and communities.

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    Your Curriculum

    Your curriculum for the Permaculture Design Certificate includes 20 short courses consumed over a period of 7 weeks, with a final design project to be finalised in the 8th week.

    Week 1: The Spirit of Permaculture

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    Shad Qudsi has over 13 years experience in organic and commercial gardening and farming. He is certified in Permaculture Design and has over 3 years experience in permaculture design consulting. After graduating from Johns Hopkins University with a double major in Applied Math and Psychology, Shad and his wife, Colleen, moved to Central America with only vague goals of farming at some point in the near future. In January of 2010, Shad and his wife bought and moved onto a very small farm located in the traditional Mayan village of Tzununa, which on the north shore of Lake Atitlan, in Guatemala. The farm developed into Atitlan Organics and now mainly focuses on greens and chickens, a large edible and useful plant nursery, a food forest, and training and education.  Shad is an enthusiastic teacher who truly believes in the work he is doing. Human resiliency cannot be erased from the landscape and now, it is coming back with a loving grace.