3 Ways Amish Keep Food COLD

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.

[stringgunner]

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!

[oldseadad]

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.

[lindamoses]

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.

[susandarling]

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.

[GeckoHiker]

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.

[tammiescreations]

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.

[MrsSheffield]

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…

[mrs.g.]

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.

[sterlingholobyte]

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.

[loriannbendit]

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

[landomilknhoney]

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.

[dewuknowofHyMn]

Yes...we have amish friends., .their "ice house" is in their basement...the walls for it is about 3-4 feet
They get ice in winter and it keeps for 1
😊

[kimfleury]

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!

[MissRebekah]

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

[veulmet]

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.

[rondias]

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

[nerblebun]

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.

[DareToBeDeviant]

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.

[Eva-xcoq]

Always interesting to learn how other people live their lives.

[LovmyLord]

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