3 Ways Amish Keep Food COLD
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 ก.พ. 2022
- Without access to public power, how do Amish keep their food cold? Do they have refrigerators? It turns out Amish have a number of ways of cooling food - some quite simple, others relying on creativity & technology.
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My name is Erik Wesner and I'm not Amish. Back in 2004, I met the Amish while selling books. Since then, I've visited 5,000+ Amish homes & dozens of Amish communities. I run the Amish America website. More: amishamerica.com/
Images: Jerry in PA, Don Burke (www.flickr.com/photos/ozarkin..., Tom in NY, David Marvitz ( / marvitzphoto , Jim Halverson, S.I.,
I'm not from an Amish background, nor am I now.
But.
Back in the day, I grew up on a 350 acre farm.
My folks had an ice house below ground.
Cement floor, a trench with a steel grate leading to a sump pump.
We cut ice from our 5 acre lake and hauled it up by our tractor and wagons.
The ice house stayed Round 45°f ALL summer. We kept produce, apples, jars of canned meat and veggies.
We hanged sugar cured and smoked hams from the ceiling.
THOSE were really good times!
And i imagine it must be very cheap compared to paying for electricity.
Here in Central Minnesota it's been a really cold winter. Many below zero days. We have a good number of Amish here, and they build some wooden troughs, line them with plastic, and use them as giant ice cube trays! They take the giant ice blocks and put them in their ice houses and it lasts till next winter.
That’s a great tip! Thanks.
We used to have what was called a spring house. Dairy and eggs where stored there.
Clever! I live in Minnesota. 🙋
That's a really fantastic idea.
I'm in west central MN. About 20 yrs ago it crossed my mind that knowing Amish ways would be smart. Esp after what we are witnessing today. 👍
Watching this in March 2022, as the world turns upside down and we now know for sure we cannot depend on our governments for electricity, food, etc. We need to learn to live more like the Amish…now more than ever. Simple, independent, self-sufficient…
Yes, this winter we will have to be ready
Yes
It’s a cult,& they are horrible animal abusers
@@lisahertel2415 most are depending on their animals, must be an exception you are talking about.
Right it's like their forefathers predicted societal failure.
I toured sn old pioneer home in Utah while hunting for a home to buy. The walls were so thick that the home stayed cool in the blazing heat of the summer and the fireplace in the living room kept the home heated in the winter. The bedrooms we're upstairs. The kitchen had steps going down to the back door. Off the the steps was was a door that opened into a large underground room with concrete bench all the way around. Sandstone squared off rocks were above the bench as walls. I imagine the concrete was put on the bench and floor later. This was the cold room or root cellar where foods were kept cold. It was hot outside but felt like a refrigerator in that room. It was large enough to store a winter's worth of crops. Very ingenius.
@Linda Moses interesting story, thankyou for posting. In the seventies there was a revival in using a lot of these ideas in the Owner Builder movement, for which a magazine still exists! so there are still people out there making homes like this. At the moment i am living in one, built by a friend in about 1980 (forty years ago). I wish i had enough money to buy it from him, its fantastic. Very minimal use of power needed to heat and cool, due to the way the place was built (passive solar design being very important). Power is generated from the roof and exported to the grid, so no power bills. My friend was a tradesman, a panelbeater and metalworker. Many working class youth went in this direction, back in the day. Its a unique house and one day maybe it will be a place where people come to learn how to make life easier for themselves, at times when fossil fuel energy becomes unreliable.
How most America farmers did it. Farm homes were designed pre electric boom. Rooms facing south to allow sun. Double front doors with small foyer to block cold air during winter. My In laws home has a root cellar the size of a bathroom within the basement off to the side with dirt floor and door. It stays dark and a constant °50 all year. Their home was built in 1942. She has most in her back up refrigerator today, but she can move her items over into the root cellar if she needs to.
Called a basement in modern times
@@EagleArrow Ooooh! Imagine all the creepy-crawly centipedes & roaches, and mice, rats & bats! In a root cellar that stays dark and dank that never sees the light of day. I'll bet some of the critters that hide in the dark there are big enough to have a small child for a snack...
@@lisahertel2415 sorry, a basement is not the same design or purpose as a root cellar.
We keep two amish freezers in an outbuilding we have that has electricity. One is for our neighbor, and the other for their inlaws. They pay us for the electricity with sausage around Christmastime.
They make great neighbours!
From my experience, if they know you need help... You don't even have to ask.
Hi Susan I hope my comment didn't sound as a form of privacy invasion your comment tells of a wonderful woman with a beautiful heart which led me to comment I don't normally write in the comment section but I think you deserve this complement. If you don’t mind can we be friends? Thanks God bless you….
It seems to me that Amish make good neighbors and have a strong social bond not only with each other but kindness to all.
Luke 4:16 KJB clearly states that it was the custom of our Lord Jesus to go to church every sabbath. He was not a sundaykeeper and every sundaykeeper is on his way to hell if he does not repent. Why did the Gentiles ask Paul to come the next sabbath day so that they could hear the words of salvation? Acts 13:42, Acts 13:44. Why did Lydia a Greek and other Gentiles go to pray at a river on the sabbath? Acts 16:13. God only blessed, sanctified and hallowed the sabbath. Isaiah 66:22,23 and Colossians 2:16 prove that in the new earth, we shall worship God in the new moons and the sabbaths. He never blessed sunday nor Christmas. The Pharisees were wrong about healing on the sabbath because they considered it work but our Lord Jesus is right, was right and will always be right.
I like your bartering
I had an uncle and aunt that lived 95% of their lives with no electricity or running water. They had a refrigerator that was powered by kerosene. I was a young girl and it always fascinated me how kerosene could keep anything cold. This was very interesting, thank you for sharing.
Especially since kerosene is used to keep stoves hot.
@@flxmkr my guess is that the kerosene was fuel for a small type compressor fridge
@@captainamericaamerica8090 or just like modern propane refrigerators it works the same. It heats ammonia where it cools in the condenser and cycles that way.
@@captainamericaamerica8090 They use absortion cooling, with propane, kerosene or a eletric resistance (for the ones that work with multiple sources in mobile houses) as a source of heat for the system.
Sounds cool. (no pun intended) But why is Kerosene ok but electricity bad?
Not Amish here but we like to use alternatives like they do. The cold room or larder is something we built into our home. The room that gets the least sun is lined with rock and has stone shelves for storing butter, homemade beverages, vegetables, and some meats. These types of rooms have a long history.
I have a spare room = which I use as guest room and also as storage. It is right next to the AC, so it gets the coldest. It has 3 windows-2 of them I blocked off the other one I use for ventilation and allow the cold to come in for as long as I can. Getting creative.
@@elkeschmitt623 A perfect setup! I visited a historic home in Pennsylvania that had the larder which was built like those in old English homes, castles, and keeps. Cool!
When the ice is collected, won't incoming air, especially on hot days, turn the temp up enough to cause melt ?
People surely need to grab something from the "freezer" daily?
Where did you get the rock lining and stone shelves? And how did you install all of That? Because I assume setting that up is different than using the modern day synthetic materials
Ho Sandra. Luke 4:16 KJB clearly states that it was the custom of our Lord Jesus to go to church every sabbath. He was not a sundaykeeper and every sundaykeeper is on his way to hell if he does not repent. Why did the Gentiles ask Paul to come the next sabbath day so that they could hear the words of salvation? Acts 13:42, Acts 13:44. Why did Lydia a Greek and other Gentiles go to pray at a river on the sabbath? Acts 16:13. God only blessed, sanctified and hallowed the sabbath. Isaiah 66:22,23 and Colossians 2:16 prove that in the new earth, we shall worship God in the new moons and the sabbaths. He never blessed sunday nor Christmas. The Pharisees were wrong about healing on the sabbath because they considered it work but our Lord Jesus is right, was right and will always be right.
My daughters and I live in the fashion of the Amish.
We also use a fridge with ice.
On Warmer months, we use a meat locker (hole in the ground lined with straw).
Thanks for a great video.
Just out of curiosity, is "mountain" "Tarik" in your familial language?
How can you Watch TH-cam Videos then?
I’m from an Amish area . Hung out with them . Grew up similar ( on a dairy farm) sometimes they were the only friends who understood my life and vise versa . We could all pay more attention to how things were done before our dependence on the grid . They salt process meat and other ways they did before the grid . My house was super old , built in 1868 . It had a red hand pump for water and an outhouse. I remember the black on the walls and ceiling’s because of all the soot on it from the oil lamps . It did have a new furnace ( oil burning) so no fireplace. Their was 1 heat register in the entire upstairs, we all got water beds ( man my dad worked hard that year ) you got dressed under the covers because you could see your breath in your room . It’s coming , they will keep pushing us until we rise up and then they will turn off the grid . It’s why they want everything and everyone on it . Keep up putting out info on how to survive without it it’s coming! God bless us all
Hi Loriann I hope my comment didn't sound as a form of privacy invasion your comment tells of a wonderful woman with a beautiful heart which led me to comment I don't normally write in the comment section but I think you deserve this complement. If you don’t mind can we be friends? Thanks God bless you….
I wish there was someone to teach me how to preserve meat with salt. 💕💕💕
@@kimkerley4218 I’m gonna buy some books and figure it out be proactive, but something at the store and try your hand . Never let fear stop you and take advantage of the internet while you can . You can find anything on here .
@@loriannbendit6296 thanks Loriann you sound nice. You can text me with the gmail on my profile 🌹🌹
Just because they dont use electricity doesnt mean they sit in the dark or have an ice house. They use gallons and gallons of fuels, diesel and kerosene. They have all the same appliances regular ppl have, its just powered different.
I often assumed people knew how to keep foods fresh before electric refrigerators. My grandparents used an "ice box", for which ice would be delivered daily. Woe to the person who forgot to empty the drip pan before bedtime! A sister of mine, though she has a fridge, uses a "root cellar" that her husband built for her years ago. I walked inside of the root cellar one summer day. It really felt a lot cooler than the 80+ degrees outside.
what happens if you don't empty it?
@@weetzybat The drip pan would overflow, and you'd get water all over the floor underneath the ice box, which the person who forgot to empty the drip pan would have to mop up.😁
I always hit the like button before I start watching. You never disappoint with your content!
One year when I was a child in the 1970s, our refrigerator broke down, and the repairman said it was shot beyond repair. Back then there was no unsecured line of credit. Cards like American Express could be used a lot of places, but you paid an annual fee that was pretty hefty, and you lost that fee from year to year I think. Other than that there was store revolving credit, such as at JCPenney and Sears, but of those two, only Sears sold refrigerators, and they were pricey for our family's situation. So Mom and Dad had to take some months to save up to buy a replacement. Our neighbor had grown up in the Tennessee hills, and even when she moved to the more modern Michigan, people were still doing a lot of things the old fashioned way. She said they would turn off the refrigerator for winter, and had a box set in the kitchen window, with a door on the inside. It would keep food cold without freezing, because of the way they insulated it. So my Dad managed to get an insulated metal milk crate, and rigged that up in the window. We couldn't keep much in it other than milk, eggs, and meat for a couple nights' supper, but we got through that winter without a fridge. I don't suppose we could do anything like that nowadays, but I did go through a 7 day power outage due to an October blizzard in Buffalo, NY, and we packed food in coolers and packed snow around them. Got us through without losing any food!
My people migrated from Kentucky and Poland to Michigan. They were skilled at preserving food. We grew, fished, and hunted to feed the family. We survived. Live in the Ozarks now, power has been quite reliable. Suspect such will change soon in Brandon's Bizzarro world...
You can use a refrigerator as an ice box there supper insulated so by putting ice in them they will keep your food cool when the power goes out I put ice in my fridge and that way I don't lose any food
Cool story bro.......
There's a cabin owner who cut a hole in the back of an old refrigerator & placed it against a wall, the hole aligned with a small metal vent to the outside air. In winter, no electricity needed to keep food cold. And he's able to adjust the interior temperature by reaching into the fridge & partly opening/closing a little sliding metal door that covers the vent. ↔️ Genius!
Thank You cheers from Pennsylvania 👍👍👍🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Sir, both of my parents lived on farms pre and post electrification and if you had a dug well or spring you could put food in a sealed container or box and put it in the water usually it was cool because it was flowing and or below ground.
I love that they still harvest ice from lakes. I have been (re)reading the Little House books, and in the Farmer Boy book of the series, she describes that exact thing and the way to harvest it. In fact, there is much great information in those books. I am amazed by how much into detail she goes when describing not only what they did, but HOW they did it, back before electricity and all the other conveniences we have.
Nice to see they have it all figured out. It be nice if people could work together like that.
Must sign up for religious rules and delusions. Pass.
Hi Sandy I hope my comment didn't sound as a form of privacy invasion your comment tells of a wonderful woman with a beautiful heart which led me to comment I don't normally write in the comment section but I think you deserve this complement. If you don’t mind can we be friends? Thanks God bless you….
Any other society outside America: First time?
Thank you.
This was well presented, and nicely in depth without being dull or overly technical.
I appreciate the respect you have shown to the Amish people and their various doctrinal beliefs.
You have done yourself proud.
Aunt B
Hi Aunt B I hope my comment didn't sound as a form of privacy invasion your comment tells of a wonderful woman with a beautiful heart which led me to comment I don't normally write in the comment section but I think you deserve this complement. If you don’t mind can we be friends? Thanks God bless you….
RV refrigerators are excellent for a SHTF scenario. They can be powered by 110 AC, 12 VDC, and propane. My retired brother lives off grid in Mulege, Baja Sur Mexico...and uses both RV fridges and chest freezers in his 5,000 sq. ft. home. His uses less than 7 amps & easily runs them & his entire home on solar/wind generated electricity w/7,500 watt inverter.
If SHTF won’t propane be just as hard to get as electricity???
@@lisawanderess: When SHTF, everything will be almost impossible to get. Prepare ahead of time.
And cellars dug into the ground. Depending where you live, typical underground temps are 40-50°F.
My Mom was born in the 30s and they built what they called a springhouse over a small branch of water that kept things at the cold mountain water temp. I wish I could've seen it.
Awesome video ! The local Amish here have been using chain saws to cut ice out of their ponds ..they have them set up on some gizmo with wheels and it cuts uniform blocks ..and it amazes me but those icehouses will keep ice all summer long with minimal melting..great video thanks for sharing
Thank you Ron glad you thought so - I've seen that the total value of ice collected during some of these harvests can be even $5000...lot of refrigeration value in a large haul of ice plus the proper icehouse technology to get the most out of it 😎
@@AmishAmerica wow..I didn't realize the ice actually had a price on it..I learn something with each of your videos and I've lived with the Amish my whole life..lol
😂😂😂 I used to work with a man who had Amish renters for one of his warehouses and they had put 15 freezers in it and stored their food in there. 15 families splitting the rent.
Don’t be fooled by their “Amish ways” they use modern amenities when it suits their purpose.💯💯
Absolutely, they allow people to drive them to the store, they are just ridiculous. They raise dogs in the most horrific conditions and then claim to be god fearing people. They amaze me ill.
@@annmarienoone9879 the child neglect and child labor departments would be swamped if they actually gave a 💩. They go to school to 8th grade, they keep their children uneducated and in the fields working heavy machinery, matter of fact the Amish family down the street had 3 of their kids, 4-9 year olds, killed by a baler/tractor last year.
I’ve seen buggy horses drop on the side of the road hauling their family of 9 up the steep hills and hollers around here. Their wheels tear up the roads they don’t pay taxes on but use to their advantage, they have cellphones, house phones, accept credit cards at their businesses, use electric to take our money at their cash registers. They inbred their children, they only bathe once a week.
And, I’ve always wondered about the elderly, you never see older Amish whatsoever. Like the really old, my grandma’s age 90’s+, where tf are they? And….locally 20yrs ago they had busted a huge Amish coke/drug ring. I really don’t get why so many people “respect” and “admire” them. 🤢🤢
Always interesting to learn how other people live their lives.
My grandparents had a well just outside their front door for drinking water and another well that was probably their original well that they put milk , etc in a bucket and lowered it into the well. Stayed really colding in that well.
yes, having swum in spring fed lakes (inland Australia) i can vouch for just how cold. We used to warn visitors and tourists not to stay in there too long, there was a real risk of hypothermia out in the middle of the lakes. (or waterholes, as we call them)
and that was the water temp in the middle of summer! where the daytime surface temperatures can push up to fifty degrees C and more....
When I was very little, my grandmother had an icebox. That was literally a refrigerator-size white metal box with a compartment on the top, where a big block of ice would be stored. This is what cooled the food. There was an ice house in town, where you could purchase blocks of ice. I remember straw on the floor around the ice in the ice house. Life can be happily lived without electricity ... just not what passes for life, today.
The Amish I drove for used every method you've mentioned here depending on their personal situation and if they were out away from the community hub and needed to be more self reliant; in the house I grew up in we had a partial basement that my mom and grandmother kept canned goods and root crops such as potatoes carrots beets cabbage onions and such;and It had i believe was unique it had an ice box built right into the house between the house entry and the pantry the doors to get stuff out were in the pantry there was doors above and below for ice storage and a door in the entry and one on the outside of the house also for ice storage
When I was a kid, we had a refrigerator that ran on natural gas, as did my grandparents. Unfortunately when we moved in 1978 it was winter and the patio door in the basement was so frozen we couldn't get it open, we tried getting the refrigerator up the stairs but 4 guys couldn't manage it, it was just too heavy.
your grandparents ran on natural gas? just kidding
I may not agree with their theology on every single point, but I can't argue with their lifestyle. These people know how to live right.
Love the pictures of ice harvesting...nice for someone to make paintings of
I live a mong the Amish Not too far from Shipshewana Indiana. I'll make sure some of the nicest people you'll ever be around. Very helpful very considerate
Shipshewana, IN is probably the most peaceful places I'd go back to any time. My folks and I are only 45-ish minutes away and when we get there it's such a huge relief to be in a place where life slows down to a crawl. No one's in a rush, noise pollution is almost non-existent, and everyone is so polite. Everything is super expensive but hey, the foods are all natural and furniture is hand crafted and unique. Never knew the refrigerators were manufactured there.
Basic, down to earth sensibility and common sense living. Glad I found your channel. Haven't seen common knowledge on the internet since I began using it. Thank you- from a very old fashioned lady.
Happy to hear it - and happy you found the channel!
Excellent video style, no filler or bloviation, just the information we came to see. Great work!
Thanks Jordi, I'm glad you thought so.
I've seen old videos of ice harvesting and it is quite amazing to see!
My grandmother would take us down to Arthur Illinois, from Urbana, in the 60s to buy produce, cheese etc. Such a nice family. I am enjoying your videos. Thank you!
I live just a few miles away from Arthur.
A amish friend of my MNL let us come in and see her farmhouse. They build a summer kitchen for summers to cook in which is closed off the rest of the house. They have a door at the steps of the upstairs to keep heat or cool air downstairs. Everything is made with oak. Beautiful kitchens. The baby had an ear infection, the baby was sleeping at an incline in the crib to relieve pressure and had an onion in a cheesecloth on her ear to pull out the infection.
It does work as I tried it with my own.
My youngest was 6 weeks at the time and in a car seat. So she wanted to come see this car seat as they hold the babies in the horse carriage. She investigated everything about it. My MNL buys peaches from her.
The onion is an old remedy, which I have used many times with daughter when she was little (35yrs ) my house doctor told it to me. The other one was boiled potato with skin on= then peeled once done and mashed (they hold together better when done this way-more pasty like consistency )= put on cloth. I guess you could even use the 2 together. The onion for the sulfur and potato for the heat.
@@elkeschmitt623 At one point our society was very much inline with the Amish. We are going back to the lost knowledge. My grandfather was a doctor, house calls and all. The doctors of his era were pressured to stop the old plant based methods around the 50s and to push the synthetic medicine for simple ailments. (The labs spent decades learning from these doctors just to create synthetic medicine ($$) then turn their backs on them and their knowledge. They were used them bullied.
I like your use of MNL. I've never seen't these abbreviation before and I'm not going to look it up. I am assuming it means Mother in law
Fantastic cold storage ideas. Sending lots of love and greetings from Missouri ♡
Thanks for you're info. Also liked the positive info from comments.
We used wooden box half submerged in the creek for dairy and meat when power was out for extended times. We also lined chest freezer with milk jugs of water and as long as we didn’t open freezer door it would stay frozen for a few days.
Amazing!😀 Great video!👏 Long ago, the town I live in harvested our lake ice for the train to take to distant suburbs and cities. It was the job to have in this town, back then. The operation is actually pretty cool!😁 Thanks for sharing! 💕
Thanks! Sometimes I wish I had a time machine to just experience things like that. This is probably as close as it gets nowadays. Makes you appreciate the convenience we enjoy now though.
@@AmishAmerica Really?
Seems most of them have fridges and freezer and mobil phone and electricity these days!
the days of claim technology is satans work seems to have been forgotten by most of them!
Wasn't there some communities that built brick lined pits in the ground to keep food cool too? (I I say "pits" but some of them are huge cavernous places).
I've also seen some build directly under lakes in the past too.
Hey
Glad I found this channel. Thank you 😊
Before refrigerator ice was kept packed in sawdust in the ice houses. I used an old method this summer to prevent my new sown lawn from dying through a draught and windy season: I let the grass grow tall before the heat (8-9 cm). In that way the grass shadowed its own roots and kept green and strong. I thought it grew a bit too tall and trimmed of the tips on half the lawn: BIG mistake! That grass immediately dried up. In September I cut the long grass and discovered that the lawn had grown thick and strong and BIG BONUS: Not a single weed! Maybe the seeds couldn't touch the ground? This method works. In the spring I will install drip-irrigation as I have water-demanding plants. It's best to prepare.
Have seen large household propane refrigerators for sale & always wondered why anyone would want one. Now I understand why.👌
(And according to RV owners, using smaller units, they're very efficient.)
They’re extremely efficient! I’ve always found them to be cheaper to run than electric refrigerators!
@@NYCHairguru OMG! Thank you for letting us know! I get sick for a week and miss everything! Next comes our food.
I tried to find any report or news article that said President Biden was rationing propane and could find nothing. Until you can back it up it didn’t happen.
@@janiceparks7742 Same here. I looked and found nothing.
When I was a kid (in the '50s and '60s) we had propane refrigerators and dryers, and of course, kitchen ranges. We lived in rural areas where the power frequently went out in the winters.
I bought my rv refrigerator from an amish dealer down in Shipshewana, Indiana. I was very surprised to see that when we got there, but now it makes since.
I grew up having a cold basement/room in the barn. We kept jars of preserved food there, vegetables and whatever food had to be kept cold, and it was standing there for years sometimes. We also had regular refrigetator at home.
Thumbs up! Always interesting! Thank you!
Watching one of your Christmas Amish videos five ways they celebrate it's my first time ever watching you you just kind of popped up in my TH-cam.... I am a fan you drew me in and now I'm interested well done with expressing the feelings behind what these people are living daily. I just like the fact that they do hold on to some traditions that s*** I used to do but they don't do any more in schools it's sad
Hi Jessica I hope my comment didn't sound as a form of privacy invasion your comment tells of a wonderful woman with a beautiful heart which led me to comment I don't normally write in the comment section but I think you deserve this complement. If you don’t mind can we be friends? Thanks God bless you….
Similar to what they used in campers back in the 70s, I remember them well because, we had one like that in our camper. Funny the outside wood box you showed, one of my uncles made 2 of them for my grandparents. My grandparents camped all summer at a particular camp grounds and, one would house the refrigerator and the other the freezer, this way, they could keep a appeal supply of food and kept it locked and secured when, they weren’t there.
I saw a video of an off grid home that had this two built in compartment refrigerator. One portion was cooled in the winter time from outside air and the other was highly insulated. He simply rotated the stuff that needed to be coldest to the air cooled in the winter and the insulated with ice in the summer.
When my grandpa was a kid living on the family farm during the 1920s, they used to lower milk and butter down the well in a basket during warm weather months to keep it cool. If I am not mistaken ground water stays at about 53 F year round, but I have been wrong before (once). Nice channel.
I also once thought I was mistaken but it turns out I was wrong. 🤣👍🏻
I think groundwater temperatures vary depending where you are.
One thing to keep in mind is that most things don't need to be stored in the fridge at all, so you actually don't need that much cooling space to begin with.
Knowing how much preservatives are put in our food, I discovered that the only things I NEEDED to keep cool were opened canned tomatoes and canned meat (more than a day). Just plan accordingly.
Never touch any food twice w the same utensil. Every dip into say, mayo, needs a clean utensil after its touched the sandwich bread.
It's amazing how food manufacturers continued to load preservatives into food after everyone had refrigerators. I guess one reason was the amt of money made, for example, electric companies let ppl think they needed to keep all food in the refrigerator, run 24/7, medical didn't fight to eliminate all the cancer causing chemicals no longer necessary in food, for obvious reasons, and manufacturers of refrigerators could keep building them bigger to accommodate all the "keep refrigerated" foods that were basically only needing the cold to preserve flavor (?).
If you are looking to save money on energy this winter, give it a try by learning what foods you favor that might not need your refrigerator at all. Remember too if you aren't heating one room, or you have ice forming on the inside of your windows, window sills are good places to keep foods cooler longer.
@@grandmalovesmebest 🤪🤪🤪🤷🏼
@@grandmalovesmebest You're brave enough to eat dairy and fresh meat that you don't keep cool?
We need to know this information now more than ever!
Always so interesting. Answers questions I have always had
When we lined in a small town with many Mennonites on the edge of town, they would take the ice/snow from the Zamboni after the local rink was cleared in the summer.
They’d pull up in their wagons and the boys would shovel it into buckets.
I had already written under another video of yours that a lot reminds me of Germany in the 50s and 60s.
When I was a child (born 1948) we refrigerated our groceries the same way. In 1967 we got the first refrigerator with an electrical connection.
My parents' house is built in 1912 and still has a traditional brick refrigeration chamber in the basement, in which you can store food without a refrigerator even in hot summer. Even today. Unfortunately, such houses are no longer built today.
I laughed out loud when I read the word 'Ordnung'. it is THE favorite word of a typical German caricature. (Sauerkraut, Brezzel, Lederhosen and ... Ordnung) 😉🤣🤣
As a Dutch guy I laughed at this as well, 'oh it's the germans with their Ordnung again.. ' 😄
@@joostdriesens3984 👍🏻🤣🤣
I like that you really have a concise and clear way of explaining things. Thanks!
Hi Shannon I hope my comment didn't sound as a form of privacy invasion your comment tells of a wonderful woman with a beautiful heart which led me to comment I don't normally write in the comment section but I think you deserve this complement. If you don’t mind can we be friends? Thanks God bless you….
I appreciate your content.
What an interesting video. I find it very fascinating that the Amish use the word "Ordnung" which is still used in "Modern Germany". There are many sayings in German when "Ordnung" is used: "Hausordnung" - if you life in an appartment building it tells you what is allowed and what you shouldn't do, for instance playing loud music in the evening or if you have to clean the stairways etc. "Sitzordnung" at school or the parliament "Bundestag" that rules the way how the members of Parliament (or pupils at school) are set on their places/seats etc. We also say "Das ist in Ordnung" - it means "It's OK" :-)
Greetings from Germany, Philipp
I seem to remember old ice houses, double walled, the cavity between the walls filled with sawdust. An early crude form of super insulation construction. Not certain such ever actually existed.
They did indeed exist. My dad, born in 1916, recalled how he loved working in a PA ice house in summer when he was a teenager. The double walled block building had sawdust from the local mill as insulation. The blocks of ice were wrapped in burlap and delivered throughout his small town by horse drawn wagon.
@@debweissler7808 You are absolutely correct. Sawdust shavings were also used in people's homes. My spouse's family had no insulation in their home. So they used sawdust shavings to insulate their attic. My father said they built homes & used news papers on the walls for insulation.
@@hollyholly4418 When I lived in CA we lived in a Craftsman home whose walls were insulated with rice hulls!
The summer of 1950 I rode with the icemen many days in an Eastern Townships community in Quebec. Most people had iceboxes to keep their perishable food in and the icemen would deliver ice to each house once or twice each week, chipping the ice to size and actually entering each house and placing the ice in each box. Most boxes were quite fancy, fashioned from oak and metal and insulated to retain the cold. Ice was harvested from the local lake in the winter and stored in an Ice House which was a four story barn-like structure insulated with course wood sawdust. The sawdust was also packed between the blocks of ice preventing the air from circulating, the ice from melting and the blocks from fusing together. As insulation, sawdust was very effective but a safety hazard in the event of fire as it could smolder for days.
@@tonyneilson1652 In his youth, my grandfather worked delivering ice for family iceboxes.
Good video, great information. Thanks.
Thank you. In an archaeological field School, we used a propane fridge. My grandmother, had a cellar where she stored her home canned goods.
I love the Amish. They’re so resourceful. Little to no carbon footprint.
Maybe Bill Gates will relent from reducing the carbon footprint on their behalf.
MANY AMISH ARE CHANGING TO MORE MODERN WAYS OF LIFE OUR AMISH FRIENDS HAVE RADIOS, COMPUTERS! PHONES. THEY POST ON YOU TUBE TOO. SOME OF THE AMISH GUYS HAVE BOYFRIENDS= 👬👬👬AND THE GIRLS HAVE GIRLFRIENDS LOVERS 👭👭👭👭
They are great at many things, but Love is a little bit too strong a word when you don't know of the downside of living in such a community including pedophelia.
@@MadeInBelize I don’t believe pedophilia is mandatory in the Amish community. Maybe a few bad actors. We all live in the real world. Bad things happen everywhere. My hope is to see the best in all people despite a rotten few.
@@captainamericaamerica8090 yeah, I don't know why the propane refrigerator freezer irked me so much. Sounds like their traditions are losing a war of attrition.
I was surprised root cellar wasn't mentioned. They aren't common in Amish communities?
My parents had a root cellar when I was a kid, and it was amazing. It held so much! I'm with you on that wondering if the Amish use them. I bet they do! It just makes sense to me. You comment is a great one!
@@beachykeen2082 YES.. AMISH DO USE ROOT-CELLERS..AND.. ICE-HOUSES ADE FROM FROZEN ICE FROM A POND ON THEIR PROPERTY.. THE ICE-HOUSE HAS AN INSULATED DOOR, AND IS BUILT INTO A LARGE MOUND OF EARTH.. INSIDE IS INSULATED WITH BALES OF STRAW TO KEEP THE ICE FROM MELTING.. IT LOOKS LIKE THE ONE ON THE T.V. SHOW.."LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE".. WHERE LAURA INGALS WAS LOCKED IN, IN ONE EPISODE.. GOD BLESS.
May have been indirectly suggested by the third way mentioned.
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Thank you! I’ve really been wondering about this.
Very interesting .Thank you from France .
When I lived in Indiana back in the early 2000's I was delivering phone books for extra money and ended up getting questioned by alot of Amish why I was bringing the a phone book I said I'm just doing my job, showed them my list of addresses, some of them had to get their elders because I was a female in street clothes in a car not a Buggy. Some took the phone books to the outhouses and some took them to the community phone both on the residential compound. It was a eye opener. The other thing pulling up to a Wal-Mart store with Amish Buggies under a barn structure in Indiana and Illinois that was awesome to experience a up front culture difference in your face in public. Really can learn alot, there not aloud to interact with us locals really unless its a benefits to their well-being and personal guidance from the elders.
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thank you. When I first bought my house, it was so drafty and I was so poor that we put milk and eggs by the window and they kept cool, ice cream we kept on the porch, all was good until around april, lol. refrozen ice cream is just not the same.
I remember keeping a quart of milk in the window as a kid. Worked well.
Unwashed eggs not from a store will keeps weeks on counter
Culture ur milk and it’ll keep while it’s culturing on counter
Once it’s done eat it n start more
Meat u have salt or dry or can
LOT of work but it’s gonna be mandatory soon
Short and sweet and hard to beat.
Excellent video
VERYeducational and interesting and helpful THANKSf
I spent an year on the mountains of Switzerland and the family had a cement basement. They had shelves made of wood with space between the boards for the cold air to circulate. That basement was used as a wash room for clothing. Also to store all the summer fruits and potatoes. They kept all the windows opened.. It was very cold and kept the foods fresh all winter, specially all the apples 🍎 😋
Going in there to do the wash I had to use a sweater, it was like entering a refrigerator! Good job 👏
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Sending greetings from Madoc, Ontario. Very interesting. Blessings
1:24 I remember a dugout with a simple roof in the side of a sandy hill near our summer dacha in Ontario that was filled with sawdust deep down in which was stored chunks of ice that all the cottagers bought for a nickel to stick in our ice-boxes...
That was really interesting. When I was a girl we didn't have a fridge but we did have a pantry in the kitchen. It had a small window space with no glass but with a metal mesh over it to keep out insects, and it kept cool all year round. Some 20 years ago I worked in a hotel kitchen and we had a cold room there with thick walls to keep it cool. We also had fridges in the kitchen as well of course but the cold room kept fresh foods fresh, such as eggs and veggies, etc.
It's amazing all the different ways the Amish use; something to bear in mind in this uncertain world. :)
I remember this arrangement in my grandmother's house in northern England in the fifties! It was called a meat safe and they were always set into a north facing and shaded wall in the brick houses. Everybody had them, even when refrigerators became common, meat safes were still used.
@@Thepourdeuxchanson Ah, yes. I'd forgotten the name for it when I wrote my comment. Cheers for the reminder. :)
My husband's grandma has a cold pantry in her old farmhouse in Kentucky. It's open to the ground and the cold air rises from the ground and keeps the room cool. To work properly, such a room needs to be on the north side of the house and has to have a small window you can open for ventilation. The inside of the room has a thick layer of mortared stone for insulation, I think it's maybe 6-8 inches thick.
i luv learning about the ice harvesting. im assuming this was done in the early english times as well and answers a lot of questions. thank you
I lived with Mennonites for several months. These were of those who did not use electricity in their places.Horses for transportation and works in the fields. A very valuable time giving a good insight into their life style and way to see the world.
I remember that once there was an ice cream prepared with a small barril shaped wooden machine used at home. In the style of a butter making device. TH-cam suggested this video.. Smart A.I. coming to the rescue..
Nice video. My family isn't Amish but, in Virginia mountains, had a small farm and the same cooling shed, well water up to the mid 80s...government said the underground well was contaminated to force them into city water. It is still the best tasting water that doesn't cause hair loss..
Did you ever have the water tested by an independent company?
My grandparents used to keep their buttermilk and butter in the well bucket, down in the well.
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First type of refrigerator mentioned is called an “absorption” type fridge/freezer. Same type you find in RVs
Thank you for the information.
My dad said they did that when he was young but and he was an Amish they packed the ice and straw and it was still good up into the summer but my grandma had a real icebox the big chunk ice one at the top you kept your food in the bottom worked perfectly well
Keeping cool/cold
in a sense
Dehydrated food items is:
"The Way". I really respect the Amish lifestyle
Awesome! Im learning how to store food without the fridge!
Thanks for the info!!!
My neighbors have a propane refrigerator. They have a tank outside they get filled time to time. Now they have an ice box for putting cold products they are selling at the end of the driveway. But I do know a group of them keep freezers at a non Amish home too.
UNIQUE, is another company that's popular in northern Minnesota that supplies propane appliances, including refrigerators. We have one ourselves.
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Thanks for the information!
My love to you ❤️❤️❤️❤️
Growing up in 60es in small country on the Balkan....remember all this....life changed for me but Im mot sure for better....🙏🙏🙏
Great video I just subscribed. Also I hit the like and the Bell so hopefully I'll see more videos from you I'd love the Amish lifestyle. Someday I'm hoping to buy a nice big farm and try to utilize some of the Amish ways along with some of the regular everyday lifestyle ways. It would be awesome to find an Amish area to go and talk with them and see how they live.
Thanks! Glad you found it - I hope you enjoy the other vids, and have a chance to visit a community. I always recommend stopping by the businesses, they often have small stores or produce stands. Great way to have a conversation, not everyone is talkative, though some certainly are :)
Very interesting and enjoyable video. HUGS and GOD bless us everyone
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Thank you for this info👍
Some good ideas for people who live off grid too thanks
On my grandparents farm they had an ice house that was like a cellar with a roof. They cut ice in the creek and covered it with straw.
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They say to store potatoes in a cool dark area. I just have to use mine quickly. I'm on the second floor in an apartment building. My apartment stays warm better because it's on the second floor.
Always fascinating to put into good use of how to do things, by others successes
The Amish in Wayne County, Indiana have ice houses and cut a lot last winter. The local Bishop makes all of the decisions regarding how modern their flock is, even down to the paint colors used in their homes. We could learn a lot from them.
Our refrigerator runs on propane. It's small but it works. On really hot days it struggles and sometimes the temp goes too high for safety so we use the freezer for things like chicken or at least watch the temp daily.
I also stopped worrying about eggs being kept in refrigeration. Of course unwashed they keep longer and can be preserved for 18mos in lime (water glassing) but we don't have chickens so we buy eggs from a store which are washed. Still haven't had any go bad even after a week on the counter. When in doubt, place an egg in a cup of cool water. If it sinks it's good. If it floats or halfway floats in the middle of the cup, it should be composted.
We also switched to making jerky. It keeps quite a long time without any refrigeration due to the salt and Prague powder (makes sodium nitrate.
Eric you continue to inspire me with your teaching about Amish life 👍🙏🙏💕
Happy to hear it Kathleen 🙂🙂
My grandfather told me they cut big blocks from the lake (he lived in upstate NY back east)and stored it in a big barn packed with sawdust. Lasted all summer.
With power outages looking this is useful info