October 1998
Mary Margaret Pecht
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Jason MinickDeLaval cream separator
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Photos by Jason Minick
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One way or another, it started with DeLaval.
At least partly, it's because Terry and Shirley Womer use DeLaval milking equipment.
And partly it's because DeLaval has been around since the 1800s, and was the first manufacturer of cream separators.
'There's a lot of advertising out there,' says Shirley Womer, as her eyes sweep some of the extensive collection of antique dairy equipment and DeLaval advertising memorabilia in her farm home near Paxtonville, Pa.
'We got into farm signs, anything to do with DeLaval, and it just escalated ... veterinary things, collectibles. We call ourselves pack rats.'
A cream separator did exactly what the name implies - separated the cream from the rest of the milk. The cream was sold for a variety of purposes, including table use, sauces and dressings, baking, whipped cream and ice cream, as well as churning butter.
The machines fell out of vogue when farmers started getting refrigeration.
Cream separators came in different sizes, but basically in two varieties: the gravity flow machines, and thosethat worked by centrifugal force.
The gravity-flow models simply sat there while the cream (which is lighter than the rest of the milk) rose to the top. The skim milk was drawn off the bottom through a spigot. They didn't take a lot of work, but they were time-consuming.
With the other models, the milk was poured into a metal bowl. When the machine was cranked, the milk was forced through a series of discs by centrifugal force. The cream came out one spout, while the skim milk came out the other.
'It took 60 RPMs to get it separated. That's a lot of cranking,' Shirley says. 'Each one of those little disks has different holes. My grandmother said when you washed it, it had to be put back together in a specific order.'
The Womers have about a dozen separators. Their passion for dairy memorabilia grew when they heard about a museum in Union County, Pa., which was being liquidated in an eight-day auction.