Visits with the Amish: Impressions of the Plain Life

Chapter 3: Cooking in the Yoders’ summer kitchen

The Amish are famous for their cooking. While some recipes come from German and Swiss ancestors, many meals resemble traditional American farm fare—meat, potatoes , homemade bread, garden vegetables, biscuits and gravy, and a baked dessert. The food varies slightly from region to region. For instance , shoofly pie, made from molasses and eggs, is a famous Amish dessert in Pennsylvania. But Annie and Regina Yoder’s family from Bloomfield, Iowa, had never heard of it. Although they shun material comforts, the Amish do not skimp on food. Because most families work up an appetite laboring on the farm, they enjoy three large and tasty meals a day, starting with a robust hot breakfast. Homemade baked goods are an important part of the Amish diet. Fresh homemade bread appears at most meals, and cakes, pies, or cookies are never lacking. 23 3 cooking in the Yoders’ summer kitchen chapter Food plays an important role at any Amish gathering, and each guest brings something to contribute to the meal. Since they believe in being as self-sufficient as possible, the Amish raise most food on their own farms—fresh eggs from chickens, milk from cows, vegetables from gardens, fruits from orchards, grains from fields, and meat from farm animals. Even popcorn grows in the garden. It’s common to see bundles of popcorn, tied in white muslin, hanging from front porch eaves to dry. Amish gardens are vast—covering as much as one acre. While the women are usually in charge of the garden, often the whole family pitches in for weeding and planting. In the gardens I saw, the plants lined up in neat rows. Amish women usually plant plenty of bright-colored flowers to line the edges. In a typical Amish garden, not a weed shows its head. Because they raise all of their vegetables in their garden—eating them fresh in the summer and canning them for winter meals— their food is mostly organic. To find out more about Amish cooking, I visited my friends Annie , Regina, and Grace Yoder. For some dishes, the Yoder girls follow recipes. For others, such as hash brown potatoes or salad dressing, they do it “by guess.” It’s late morning when I arrive at the Yoder house one hot June day. The whole family spent the morning picking strawberries from their large garden. I can tell by the red ring around his mouth that even baby Wayne helped out. A huge metal bowl—holding 15 quarts of strawberries—sits on the counter inside the Yoders’ kitchen. The girls tell me they usually add sugar to make strawberry topping, but ran out this morning . So their mother and father just left for town in their horse and buggy to pick up some sugar. “Strawberries take a lot of sugar!” says Regina. “Mom’s going to take these berries over to our neighbor lady, just to be neighborly, I guess.” Last week, the family picked 26 quarts and froze them. 24 part one cooking in the Yoders’ summer kitchen Since it’s 11:00 in the morning, the girls begin to prepare dinner , their main meal of the day. Grace washes and tears apart some fresh leaf lettuce. “It’s from our sister Mary Edna’s garden,” says Annie. “This year we couldn’t plant lettuce because it rained so much. But my sister’s garden is on a slope, so she could get hers in.” Annie mixes a meatloaf using beef they butchered last fall. Regina peels potatoes and shows me how to poke the potatoes into a crank-style stainless steel shredder without getting my fingers nicked. While we cook, four-year-old Leah plays with Wayne. “I’m gonna get you!” she gently teases as she trots behind him at his toddler ’s speed. He squeals with delight. In the large Yoder kitchen, long and wide counters provide spacious work areas for all the daughters. There’s also plenty of room for a large wooden table, where the family gathers for meals. A wooden hutch holds two sets of delicately flowered china, saved for weddings. A cloth covers the giant wood-burning stove and oven. “We use this wood stove only in the winter, because it gives off so much heat,” says Annie. In summer, they cook on a kerosene range that sits in the large entry porch, so the kitchen stays cool. After Grace lights the kerosene stove...