While in Pennsylvania last week, my friend Ben and I managed to return to the Mennonite bakery I loved last year. This is a bakery run by “Piker” Mennonites (basically the plainest horse-and-buggy Mennonite group), right off the main highway in Snyder County. I saw a lot of the same favorites from last year, like fruitcake and pecan pie squares (I’ll do another post with…
I was happy to see that Goot Essa owner John Esh appeared on the “Seen Through A Glass” podcast recently to discuss his cheese & food business. John has a nice casual discussion with podcast host Lew Bryson. He explains how he came to cheese-making, and specifically European-style cheeses. In case you were wondering about the Amish and cheese, John notes that there is a…
With inflation and the cost of things like food having gone up a ton in the past year or two, I decided to put together a few money-saving tips practiced by the Amish. Three of these have to do with saving on food bills, and two of them are for general money-saving (tips & video below). Are these completely revolutionary, reinventing-the-wheel ideas? Drumroll…no, they’re…
As a low-tech group, how do the Amish cook and bake? Below I share several ways Amish prepare food (specifically, how they generate the heat for cooking & baking – if you’re looking for things like Amish recipes and food prep techniques, this is not that topic 🙂 ). As with many things, there can be a lot of variety in cooking methods across the…
This is a neat article (Jamestown Post-Journal) on the opening of one Amish family’s new pizza place, the aptly-named “Family Night Pizza”. On first glance, the article title itself is eye-catching, for more reasons than one: “Amish Owned Pizza Business Has Opened In Panama”. That would be Panama, New York – not the Central American nation. But the pizza part is just what you would…
Yesterday we had a Q and A with John Esh of Goot Essa cheese (check it out here if you missed it). And we’ve got the gift basket winner for you below. Thanks to everyone who entered! Goot Essa makes small batch cheeses and pairs them with items like apple butter spread, crackers, prosciutto, fudge and more in their wide array of gift baskets. In yesterday’s Q…
Goot Essa is an Amish cheese company based in central Pennsylvania, in business since 2001. They make a wide variety of cheeses (traditional cow dairy, goat, sheep) using milk from Amish farms. Founder John Esh shares more about Goot Essa and their cheeses in today’s Q & A. We first heard from John in a 2020 interview. I also did a little review of a…
I run through my five favorite Amish sweet treats in this post. I am calling them “desserts” in the post title, but I guess one or two of them might not be technically desserts, though it’s arguable 🙂 I also share two that I’m not so fond of. What are your favorite Amish desserts, baked goods, sweet treats? Let us know in the comments….
This past June I visited Emma’s Gourmet Popcorn in Lancaster County. I recorded this video showing the different flavors they sell (apparently 60 of them). I didn’t realize there were so many flavors of popcorn; you’ll see my surprise at some of the unexpected tastes I find in the shop. As I’m recording you’ll hear the banter of some Amish friends and store workers in…
How can you arrange a meal in an Amish home? We’ve covered this topic on this site before on numerous occasions – with a lot of good comments from people sharing their experiences. Amish restaurants (or “Amish-style” restaurants) are a more accessible option, but for those who want to put in a bit more effort, a meal in an Amish home can be a memorable…