Yoder's Meat and Cheese

For years I drove by Yoder’s Meat and Cheese in Shipshewana without stopping by.  I didn’t think I wanted to shop for meat on a weekend getaway—it’s not a very vacationish-type of activity, buying meat!…  But then I stopped by one day with an Amish friend, to pick up her daughter’s W2 form.  One visit and I was hooked.

Since meat and cheese are their specialties, they have plenty of both—with free samples of the cheeses, and there are a million kinds, most of which I’d never heard of.  The meat cooler is packed with chicken, pork, beef, and even buffalo, all locally grown, all hormone and steroid-free.  The entire place is clean and organized and a pleasure to shop in. 

As for the bother of taking meat home—I have learned that it’s worth the trouble of tossing a cooler in the back of the Jeep.  My husband buys summer sausage there from the large selection of smoked meats (samples available there too) that he takes to work in his lunch bag with some of their cheese and a box of crackers.  And their thick-cut peppered bacon—when it’s cooked right, in a good pan of bacon grease—is the best I have ever eaten.  (My husband says it has ruined him for any other bacon!)  They sell bags of ice and inexpensive coolers for the unprepared, so it’s really not much trouble to take something home.   

But half the store has other food items, and we never leave empty-handed.  Yoder’s has nuts, preserves, seasonings, locally made noodles, and all kinds of stuff for good down-home cooking and baking.  I’ve found some unique sweet and salty snacks there, and the prices are better than where most tourists shop.  (The First Commandment of Shopping in Amish Indiana is this: The further you get from the tourist traps, the better the prices.)  It’s a good place to pick up things to bring home for yourself or for gifts.  We bring back jars of the horse radish for a friend of my husband’s—he says it’s the best he’s ever tasted.  Now some of his friends are hooked on it, too.

Out in front in the parking lot, a local Amish family, the Millers, make and sell kettle corn on some days, and free samples are offered to passersby.  The “fry pie” vendor is sometimes set up with his trailer.  You never know what you’ll find.  I never thought I could get excited about a meat and cheese store, but I was definitely mistaken!

Phone Shanties

It used to be that to communicate with my Amish friends, I’d have to write a letter.  And if my Amish friends needed to make a phone call, they would walk or ride a bike to the diner down the road.  But these days, land-line phones are working their way into the Amish community—via phone shanties.

A phone shanty is a little building out by the road containing a phone which several families might share.  Each family (or young person) has a different voice mail extension, so this is what you hear:  “For Alvin Troyer, press 1.  For Merle Beachy, press 2.  For Noah Miller, press 3.  For Jacob Bontrager, press 4.”

When I phone my Amish friends, I leave a voice message.  They usually check their voice mail a few times a day and call me back.  It’s still a strange thing to me to hear my cell phone and see their name on the caller ID!  But it does make it much easier to plan things than in the old days.

Some businesses have phone shanties closer to the building.  When you see print ads for Amish retail businesses in tourism brochures or The People’s Exchange, a phone number is often listed, but normally it will say “VM” next to the number—“voice mail.” 

Some Amish businesses are permitted to have cell phones for business, especially builders or other contractors who are “out and about” during the day.  And Amish young people ages 16 and upwards who are in their “running around years” (rumspringa) and have not yet joined the church might have cell phones.

Why are phone shanties allowed, but phones inside homes are not?  The long and short of it is, the Amish want to discourage faceless electronic communication rather than actual human contact.  They also frown on having endless hours frittered away socializing over the phone.  (Not unlike what I’ve heard “English” parents say!)  Their phones are for necessary calls, so they keep them at arm’s length…  They believe in doing your work when it’s time to do your work, and then when work is done, spending lots of time in social activities and fellowship—face to face and in person.  

I remarked to my friend that recently I’ve seen what I call “phone shanty creep”—the shanties seem to be moving farther up the lane and closer to the homes and businesses.  She agreed with that, and said that their local bishop has said that the shanty can be partially up the lane, but not close enough that you can hear it ring from inside the house. 

What a slippery slope keeping modern technology at bay can be!  A 500-year-old religious and cultural group, trying to maintain their identity as a “separate people” while not creating undue hardship on their members…  But as I’ve said before, it’s not my place to defend the Amish or try to explain their theology.  I’m glad they are as accepting of my contradictions as I try to be of theirs! 

Rise N Roll

Does my husband look happy in this picture?  You bet he does.  And what is the source of this happiness? A cinnamon caramel doughnut—one of the specialties at Rise N Roll Bakery and Deli in Shipshewana, and a doughnut otherwise known as “Amish crack” because it’s so addictive!

Bakeries are everywhere in Amish Indiana—but this one is special.  On Saturday mornings the line runs through the building and out the door.  But any other time it’s easy to purchase something freshly baked to eat on the spot, and something more to take home.   

I remember, not that many years ago (2001 to be exact), when Rise N Roll began in a white building on a farm on the Middlebury-Shipshe Road (also known as Route 250N) near the Lagrange County line.  I stopped by with a friend, and the eager young Amishman behind the counter, Orvin Bontrager, said that he and his wife had just started the bakery and they really hoped that it would do well. 

It certainly did!  Now Rise N Roll has a huge new building on Route 20, and they sell baked goods as well as local food products of every kind.  There’s also a deli with tables where people can eat breakfast or lunch, or enjoy a fresh doughnut with the always-free cup of coffee.  It is a great place to get gift items to bring back with you, since they carry so many things that will ‘keep’ on the trip home.

Standing at the checkout counter, you can see the huge work area in the back where the goodies are made.  I’ve heard that sometimes, if you’re very lucky, and you’re there in the morning, you can stand there and watch the young women making the baked goods singing while they work.

Rise N Roll’s original owners sold out to a group of non-Amish  investors a number of years ago, and they now have a website (www.risenrollbakery.com) and a facebook page.  They have expanded to making gluten-free baked goods, all-natural pizzas, box lunches, and gift baskets.  They now have several smaller outlets, and their products are sold in local supermarkets, shops, and restaurants, as well as farmer’s markets around Chicagoland.  But when in Amish Indiana, it’s still a nice place to eat, shop, and relax for a few minutes with a free cup of coffee—and for the happy man in the photo, a cinnamon caramel doughnut.