Yesterday evening, helped by my mother and brother, I enjoyed the “Down Home” gift basket, which arrived from Goot Essa last week. The basket came well-packed with insulation on all six sides, and four cooling packs. It also came with two cards. One has a photo of the cheese shop. On the reverse side it tells the Goot Essa story: The other card offered four…
This summer we learned about Goot Essa, an Amish cheese maker in central Pennsylvania. The business had adapted to the recent disruption and started selling their foods online (with non-Amish help to run the website). Last week I spoke with Goot Essa’s founder, John Esh Jr. John has kindly answered some questions – about his business, personal favorite cheeses, his family’s Christmas Day activities, and…
Today we have a video “slice of life”. This one comes from Daniel Stoltzfus, whose wife Lydia shared her scrap quilts in a recent clip. In this video, Daniel is filming and talking with a lady who I assume is one of his Amish relatives (a sister?) as she rolls and weaves pretzels on the kitchen counter. At one point Daniel hams it up a…
There is an interesting discussion on the Ag Talk forum about Amish pies. The original post is basically a complaint that pies made by the Amish in the poster’s area of central New York are not very good. An excerpt: I’ve tried 3 different Amish sources 2 on farms and one at a Amish store. Yesterday daughter brought on from a farmer’s market, also Amish. Every…
This video was shot in an Amish kitchen – on the farm where the movie Witness was filmed in the 1980s. In it, Martha Beiler takes us through making a large batch of chicken pot pie. We don’t see her face at any point, but we do see what she’s doing and hear her speak (photos by Paul Kuehnel/York Daily Record). The occasion was a…
It must be that time of year. After Lovina Eicher gave us an up-close look at pon hoss, Gloria Yoder describes a butchering event in her church. I know some people don’t like to read about these topics. But on the other hand, it’s good to recognize and appreciate that meat doesn’t just come from a grocery store. A reality of life in Amish communities…
Lovina Eicher makes it in this week’s edition of Lovina’s Amish Kitchen. As she describes it, pon hoss is “a fried dish made from leftover hog meat.” It is also another name for scrapple. The dish was first created by German settlers in Pennsylvania in the 17th and 18th centuries. Here is more on how it gets made: On Saturday, we helped sister Emma and Jacob…
Heading to the Amish community in Holmes County, and want to have a memorable meal? How about one served by an Amish family? I picked up this business card last time I was in the community: I haven’t tried this so can’t personally vouch, but it seems like a nice option if you’d like some good food in Amish surroundings. A quote from a customer…
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While at the Amish Health & Well-Being Conference, I had a chance to catch up with my friend Mark Curtis. Mark joined the Amish at age 50 and has been a member of the church at Belle Center, Ohio for over 15 years. Some of you might remember Mark’s father Don, who for years commented on this site, often sharing insights on the Amish direct…
How many eggs do Amish eat? How much do they can? How often do Amish order pizza or other food to the home? I’m currently reading the new book Nature & The Environment in Amish Life. Authors David McConnell and Marilyn Loveless include a survey revealing interesting – even surprising – points about the Amish diet. They compared the four major affiliations of Amish in…