Wanna Be a Steader!

I love my bulk foods shops!

I don't know how many of you are aware of it, but Ohio (Holmes County to be exact) is home to the World's largest population of Amish.  The Amish and other Old Order faiths are scattered in pockets all over rural counties in Ohio.  We, in Miami County, are blessed to be one of those counties. 

Here we have a lot of Old Order Mennonites, German Baptists and Quakers.  The Old Order lives very much like the Amish...horse and buggies, beautiful colored but plain colored clothes, dark cloaks and caps when in public...and alot of homeschoolers!!  Our Meijers super market even has a hitching post with a water bucket on one end.  On any day, on the stretch of road between Troy and Covington you just might have to slow down and wait to pass a buggy.  They also have great veggie stands that they pull in with either their horses or an old tractor on a flatbed hitch.

But my favorite places to shop are run by several Mennonite/German Baptist families that I have come to love (Gena...next time you get out this way, plan to spend a day out here and I'll take you to some of these places!).  I usually try to hit these 3 places on the same trip when I go out...

My first stop is at a farm that does a little bit of everything.  They raise cattle, they raise and sell Burnese [sp?] Mountain Dogs (my dear friend who first took me to this place is about to buy one of their precious puppies!) and they have a little shop where they sell "damaged" food items.  They have just about anything your little heart desires, CHEAP!, there's just something wrong with the container - dinted can, scratched package - doesn't bother me when I can get full name brand taco kit for $1.25!!

My second stop is right around the corner to a beautiful, huge dairy farm.  These folks run their whole milk and brown eggs buisiness the old fashioned way...they have a little shed that you just walk right in, get your eggs out of one frig ($1 per dozen) and your milk ($2 per gallon) out of the other, and put your money in the bucket on top of one of the friges!  You don't see trust like that too many places anymore.

My third stop is a little further up to another German Baptist home.  They have a little shop attached to their home.  This place has everything your little heart could desire!!  Freshly milled flours of all kinds, sugars, salts, mixes, sucanat, stevia, herbs (herbs, herbs, herbs!), teas, cereals and granola mixes, farmers' cheeses, rolls of butter, treats, even books and games.  Of course, I'm not allowed to leave there, on strict orders from my family, without getting some homemade fig bars and red licorice! 

These are some of my favorite spots.  If you visit I'll take you there!

Blessings from Ohio, Kim Wolf<><

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Buckeyeblog

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/OHIO

That sounds lovely!

11:48, 2006-Feb-4 .. Posted by melissamb5

I am fascinated my the amish. How truly blessed you are to have this lifestyle in your own backyard.

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12:43, 2006-Feb-8 .. Posted by gina

I live just over the border of Ohio in Indiana and we are home to many Amish and German baptists (mennonite and various other Plain People groups.) I like to shop and eat at their stores & restaurants too. I'll have to get over to Miami Co. one of these days!

Thanks for sharing!

Wow!

04:23, 2006-Mar-3 .. Posted by southernbelle

I wish I lived there!!!!!!