Amish (and hillbilly) foods.

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OK, I'll throw in my 2 cents, and I skimmed thru that hr long video. Ha. Amish food is very regional, so for instance ShoeFly Pie isn't seen much in the plains Amish where I live, but Raisin Sour Cream pie is a big thing, and Peanut butter pie. Other things in the video that I see here....Pear jam (I make it), Apple butter, cracklings, sauerkraut, homemade ketchup and BBQ sauce, canned veg and fruit (of course), lots of home canned applesauce, pickles and even red hot pickles made with red hot candy, and sausage cream gravy and biscuits, although I was raised on dried beef cream gravy and toast. Fried mush and tomato gravy is hugely popular here.
Most of these foods are cheap to make. Lots of beans here, too, and they always have cut up hot dogs in them or vienna sausage.
 
What drew me to the film was how much it had in common with Appalachian mountain foods,
But then again, we had Amish and Mennonites in the area, and we'd trade with them on occasion at the gas station. I had a real crush on one of the daughters, but her dad always corralled them away.
Which sect was supposedly afraid of electricity? Both families had vehicles. I never knew about the buggy thing until I saw it on TV.
 
What drew me to the film was how much it had in common with Appalachian mountain foods,
But then again, we had Amish and Mennonites in the area, and we'd trade with them on occasion at the gas station. I had a real crush on one of the daughters, but her dad always corralled them away.
Which sect was supposedly afraid of electricity? Both families had vehicles. I never knew about the buggy thing until I saw it on TV.
Generally the amish don't use electricity, but it depends on the amish. Solar is popular with the Old Order Amish where I live, so electrical appliances are sometimes used. It's common to see big lithium batteries sitting around powering something with an inverter. Just saw a nebulizer hooked up that way at a neighbor's place. The amish here don't use electricity from the power poles at the road. And they drive tractors (like a car) and horse and buggy only on Sunday. Mennonites here depends on the kind of mennonite they are. I have electricity and a car. Old order Mennonites might or might not, or limit the use of both, like no tv or radio. We have extra pasture, so our neighbor Marlon's buggy horse lives here except on Sundays, then she works. Her name is Bets. There is a group of Mennonites called Black Bumper Mennonites, and their car couldn't be fancy and couldn't have a chrome bumper. Amish America website is a great info website with photos too of the Amish in our country.
 
What drew me to the film was how much it had in common with Appalachian mountain foods,
But then again, we had Amish and Mennonites in the area, and we'd trade with them on occasion at the gas station. I had a real crush on one of the daughters, but her dad always corralled them away.
Which sect was supposedly afraid of electricity? Both families had vehicles. I never knew about the buggy thing until I saw it on TV.
Each Amish community can decide on their specific rules about technology. In general, if it makes people lazy or interferes with having interpersonal relationships, then they don't allow it. Amish businesses operate under different rules than Amish homes by necessity. You have to have air conditioning if you want "English" to shop in your store in the summer, for example. Operating a saw mill without using diesel or electricity won't be profitable. etc.
And they avoid all grid dependent utilities. So solar might be OK but electricity coming in over power lines is not.
While they might not tick all the boxes for being "preppers" they tick enough of them that they will be pretty well off in a grid down situation
 
It depends on the region. Here, an Old Order Amish shop can't have electrical lights or air conditioning. They can run solar or LED battery charged lights, and they can use solar battery run fans.
 
If you look at where Amish communities have been successful and where they have not, there is a very strong negative correlation with summertime temperature and humidity.
In fact, if you look at the USDA map of plant hardiness zones, you will find almost zero Amish communities in Zone 8b and very few in Zone 8a. Once you get into Zone 7b then you start seeing more and more communities.
 

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