Apples
“…We farm the way we do because we believe in nurturing and supporting all our community – that includes people as well as land and wildlife” (Kline 1990). The farming practices used by today’s Amish farm families have developed over 300 years and sustained the Amish as one of the most persistent and successful subcultures in North America (Stinner et al. 1989; 1992).
The Amish have always maintained a healthy lifestyle which also extends to their farming practices. They’ve always been organic. They use legumes and manure from livestock to build fertile soil instead of purchasing petroleum based fertilizers. They practice crop rotation with highly diversified crop varieties instead of the typical farm dual rotation of corn and soybeans. This diversity breaks most insect and disease cycles, which negates the need for pesticides.
These sound, healthy farming principles make it easy to see at harvest time why you can go into any Amish garden or orchard (of course, only if you are invited in) and pluck the fruits of the tree or field and eat it out of hand. No fears that the fruit or veggie needs to be washed free of chemicals, although you might want to wash the dirt off of the root vegetables. Nothing is more refreshing than taking a bite out of a crispy apple on a brisk fall day.
The Amish cook knows how to take a bountiful apple harvest and make it last all winter. Apples are stored fresh, or are preserved through drying or canning. One way to preserve the freshness of the harvest is to make delicious apple butter. Apples are also a mainstay of desserts in the forms of pies, crisps, fritters, strudel, dumplings, brownies, cakes, and cookies.
There’s a lovely dish called Amish Apple Grunt which is served with cream or ice cream.
For breakfast, there are apple pancakes and Amish Apple rolls, a sweet breakfast treat. Schnitz pie is a special dried apple pie which is typically served after Sunday church services.
Here’s a delicious recipe for Apple Cake with Hot Caramel Sauce:
