My plans for today included cooking breakfast, making bread, cooking a late lunch/early dinner and spending the rest of the day sewing. Right after breakfast, I mixed up a batch of bread and came downstairs to sew. Before I ever got started, Vince asked if I wanted to run up to the apple orchard. Not really! But, being the good wife (stop snickering!), I said . . sure, how long will we be gone because I have a batch of bread started? Vince didn’t think we’d be gone more than an hour which was fine because the bread needed to rest for 45 minutes for the gluten to do whatever it does before I went through another kneading process.
Off we went . . about 15 miles up the road to the apple orchard. Just before getting there, Vince suggested we go up to Rich Hill, just about 4 miles farther, and find the Amish grocery store. We didn’t have a clue where it was but Vince found it. I tell you . . if I’d been driving out there by myself, you’d never have heard from me again. I would still be going around in circles.
I know that everything in the Amish community isn’t always peachy but . . I’m not sure I admire them tremendously or if I have a gigantic fascination for their way of life. No, I do not want to be an Amish person but I wish I could spend some time with them. Part of what I admire about them is their commitment to their way of life. Too often in my own life, I’ve had what I thought was a total commitment to something and then circumstances changed and doing whatever I thought was so important became a chore and I gave it up. I cannot imagine going through life traveling everywhere in a horse and buggy, having no air conditioning, cooking on a wood stove when it’s hotter than heck, having no refrigerator. I’d have thrown in the towel a long time ago and taken the easy road. I could sit and talk to them all day . . I have so many questions. I’m sure they’d send me on my way in a short time but the 5 or 6 Amish people we came in contact with today, I had a zillion questions. Vince kept saying “stop asking so many questions” and they all said “oh, that’s ok!”
Here are some pictures I took, with their permission. I asked before taking pictures, knowing they don’t want to be photographed. They were fine with me taking pictures of “stuff”, so long as none of them were in the pictures.
The almost 2 years we’ve been here (2 years on January 2, 2009 but . . who’s counting?), as much as I love this town, I can hardly stand the gross produce in the grocery stores. It’s awful and it’s darned expensive. Why didn’t someone tell me that 15 miles up the road, I could get this!
I don’t think I can convey in a blog post how horrible the produce is in our stores. Green peppers are almost $1 each (and that’s not the organic ones — that’s the shriveled up, oozing green peppers that should have been thrown in the dumpster). While I’d rather not pay $1 for one green pepper, if it’s halfway decent and that’s the asking price, I’ll do it but I refuse to pay $1 for a green pepper that is downright gross. At the Amish store, the green peppers feel fresh . . they’re heavy, their skin is shiny and tight and they’re big and juicy looking and they were 3 for $1.
They had homemade breads and pies – $5 for a homemade pie and $3 for a loaf of homemade bread. What bargains!
And, here’s the owner’s horse out back.
I’ll share more pictures tomorrow but here’s wherein lies the major problem of the day:
In the box on the left are some jellies, and some warm sorghum syrup that they were just processing and putting into jars as we watched. I could drink that stuff . . but I didn’t! See that box of yams on the right? $6 for that whole box! In the white bags are tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers, several kinds of squash, and I can’t remember what else. Somewhere in there are 40 pounds of apples, 50 pounds of wheat, an apple peeler (cannot find mine anywhere so we bought another one!) but the best buy and the biggest problem of all . . 90 pounds of tomatoes!
If you’re guessing we were gone about 3 hours instead of 1 hour, you’re right and if you’re guessing I’ve spent about 9 hours in the kitchen, you’d also be right!
30 quarts of tomatoes! I’ll tackle the apples when I get back to town on Tuesday. I just heard Chad ask Vince “What kind of apples are these? This is the best apple I’ve ever had!”
Oh . . look at my canner! It barely . . just barely fits under that microwave. I didn’t have anything to can last year so I never got it out. Never even thought that it might not fit under that microwave. It fit fine at both houses in Kentucky. Would I have been up a creek or what if I had 90 pounds of tomatoes to put up and the canner wouldn’t fit? Let’s not think about that.
Yep, I’m very, very tired and I’m going to bed now to read.
Vicky says
Wow! Everything looks wonderful at the Amish store! I had forgotten that good veggies aren’t as plentiful everywhere as they are here in CA until I got to Louisiana. The stuff was awful looking. What’s the stalk laying on top of the sweet potatoes?
Suzanne says
I love purchasing directly from the farm. The store produce isn’t much better or cheaper than your area stores. We bought 50 pound bags of red potatoes today for $8. Some of the individual potatoes would feed 3 people! We also picked up 25 pounds of onions for $8. Good luck with the canning. My canning day is Monday
Karen L says
Everything looks so good…and fresh. The grocery store here does very good on getting fresh produce, you pay dearly there….but the stuff at the “big box” isn’t as good… ok its down right nasty. We try to grow our own in the summer and I freeze and can whatever doesn’t get eaten….oh wait…I don’t do the canning…..my DH does.
Karen L
pdudgeon says
so glad you found a great place to buy your fruits and veggies.
Karen says
Oh, how wonderful! You’re killing me. You’re so lucky to be able to reach an Amish grocery of all things. Everything looks wonderful. Do you know what the apple variety was? Did they have more than one kind? I’m apple crazy now that my apple trees are producing. Surely the owner’s horse doesn’t stand there hitched up all day, does it? You’re so lucky to live there, Judy!
Laila Mogensen says
Last autumn I went to visit the Amish in Pennsylvania and it was a great experience. They do not all at least use wooden stove but they use gas instead or get the energy from their windmills. It was fascinating though to watch tehir way of living. It is a simple life, the rules are set and they don’t have that many possibilities or choices to make.
We also bought lots of fabric and it was so cheap. Well in Denmark the price for one yard is around 30 $ so almost anywhere in US I think the fabric will be cheap.
Toni says
sounds like my days when plans go out the window. What happened to the bread?
Linda says
You REALLY enjoyed that Amish store! I keep hoping we’ll get an Amish store around here someday. Then I won’t have to order my Clear Jel online & it’ll probably be cheaper. At last count there are 14 or 15 families that have moved here and I know there are more who want to if they can find land so maybe there’s hope even though our local grocery store really needs the business to keep going. Around here the Amish will use electricity if they are in a rental house–dishwasher, AC & all. I know of one family who has a TV & keep it hidden in a closet if they think any of the other Amish might visit. They have kerosene refrigerators and will use propane to cook in the summer. At least one family here has a large walk-in freezer that runs on propane. While they use horse & buggy for short trips into town or to visit each other, they hire non-Amish to drive them quite a bit–such as to work, doctor & shopping in larger towns further away. Having gotten acquainted with some of them, they are SO much like us—they just dress different and don’t accumulate all the electrical & motorized crap we do. Very nice people overall.
karyls quilts says
Im in middle Mo. and love the amish stores… but most are some distance away. What town is this in?
We did one this spring that had many dried goods… bulk beans.. and soup mixes.. all very good!
sounds like a wonderfull day ! ~karylsquilts
Kristin says
I think you’ll need to include a wheat count in your Sunday Stashbusting Reports!!
Lori in SD says
I’m with Toni–what happened to the bread? Good luck with the apples, I’m going to tackle mine again tomorrow.
Kathy Bonham says
Please call me, and take me with you the next time you go! Or, give me the directions to get there!
Evelyn says
I swear that our grocery store sells pig slop for their vegetables. Ew. In the summer I always buy from the Farmer’s Market. An elderly gent in town always sells me fresh berries that he picks, in season! And this week a man stopped by with his pick-up truck loaded with fresh apples and squash – I bought both. Fresh and in season is the way to go. But really, I don’t know why the board of health doesn’t step down hard on these big stores selling 1/2 rotted produce. Glad that you found a fresh supply just a few more miles down the road! That store looks neat and tidy! A note about the Amish – they are trying really hard to mix up the genetic pool a bit because now many of the children have serious blood disorders – so traveling by car is needed to get one group to another for a social that is a far distance.
Cheers!
Evelyn
Jan says
Wait a minute?!!!! 50lbs more wheat???!!! ROTFLOL The Amish sotre looks amazing!! I even had to look up Rich Hill on the map to figure out if I was going to drive down…. ok… maybe not today, but that looks like definitely worth the trip.