What's up the Amana colony?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

Okay, all I know is that they make their own candles there. And when I was a kid, they let me watch and dip candles myself. How cool is that? How can anyone NOT like making your own candles that smell nice and you can spend all day cooking them?

Plus, they get to wear those bonnets, which I think I look totally cute in. I’m rather jealous.

Anyone ever seen the movie “Devil’s Playground.” That’ll give you an extra special look at the Amish that you never considered. You’ll have no respect for them at all, guaranteed. What they do to their children is abhorrent.

L

22

Christ, calm down!

First, I’m a woman.

Second, I’m well aware of where the Amanas are. See my posts. Duh.

Third, your point is largely moot. Pennsylvania Dutch, Amish, German Anabaptist…these people all come from the same general area and make the same types of dishes. In Pennsylvania, the stuff tastes good. Here, it’s all bland.

I don’t care if it’s intended to be that way because of their wonderful heritage or not. But a tremendous number of people go there hoping for good German cooking, and come away very disappointed.

That’s all I was trying to say. I’m sorry I spaced off the technicality of what their religion is. (Amish, Mennonite, German Anabaptist…they’re all in the same general family anyway. Note that I am not saying they are exactly the same. But it is not exactly like I said they were Amish when they’re really Buddhist, or something.) Note that I come from that background myself. I don’t think the distinctions are especially important, and certainly not to the average Amanas tourist.

I’m sorry if it offends you that this Iowan made a relatively minor mistake in talking about the marvelous Amana colonies. There is no reason for you to get all angry and snide.

23

Hey Spavined

Far northeast Iowa???
anywhere near McGregor?

24

Well let’s se if we can get all the Iowa dopers to respond.

The Amana’s are more a day trip for some good, craft-style food and unusual stuff than they are a resort destination. I like the food myself, as Spavined Gelding mentioned, the smoked pork chops are incredible. As are the sausages and smoked meats in (that shop whose name I can’t remeber on the east end of main Amana).

The Amana’s have branched out and have begun making a name for themselves in the food markets in local supermarkets also. I can now get Amana beef, hams, and, I think, bacon, in my local store.

The best way to think of the Amana’s is not as a commune or something, but as a group of inter-related craft stores with high quality goods. Especially the meats and beer.

Q.N. I think possibly you have not been to the proper places in the Amanas if you think the food bland. Stay away from the place on the interstate, and even some of the main places in main Amana, find one of the little hidden places, that is where you find the good food.

Oh, and Guin? I distinctly remember a shop specializing in antique buttons and fasteners for clothes, must have had thousands at least. Who knew there was a demand?

Don’t you do SCA or renaissance clothing, or am I thinking of someone else? <evil smily>

25

[QUOTE=Etherman]
Well let’s se if we can get all the Iowa dopers to respond.

The Amana’s have branched out and have begun making a name for themselves in the food markets in local supermarkets also. I can now get Amana beef, hams, and, I think, bacon, in my local store.

Hey there is a woodworking shop there too.

Been a while since we visited there. Hmmm Got a hankerin for some of that elderberry wine. Maybe some rhubarb.

Hey honey what are we doin this weekend?

26

Part of the treat in visiting the home office for a training class, located in Cedar Rapids, IA, was heading out to the Amana Colonies for dinner. Haven’t been there in close to 20 years, but that was some darn good eatin’. The instructor told us, if you go back to the motel hungry, that’s your fault, and he was right. :smiley:

27

Ack. I feel sort of rude, now that I read this. I visited the Colonies as a child and just sort of lumped them in with other Amish touristy sites I know if (in Southern IL, etc.). I guess I should have known exactly what the subject WAS before I started maligning the way they treat their children. duh!

28

I’ve been to some of the most highly recommended places. Maybe I’m just spoiled by my upbringing–Mom’s a better cook of that kind of food than any restaurant. I’ve heard complaints from others, though–people who went to the supposedly good places. However, come to think of it, most of them were people who grew up in Pennsylvania Dutch households. So maybe it’s just us–?

29

GO HAWKEYES.

30

My thoughts exactly. Only 130 miles away. Oooh, fabric. Didn’t I read in this thread that they have wool cloth? My birthday is coming up . . .

Oooh, antique buttons. Oooh, shinies. Wool . . .

It’s like my deepest desires have come true. Now all I need is to come into a billion dollars so I can feed my habit.

31

Q. N., I don’t mean to be angry and snide, and deny to my dying breath that I am. I suppose that the quality of the food at the Amana Colonies is largely a matter of taste. You have the advantage of me in having a mother who is a fine cook of regional specialties (my mother, to steal a phrase, was about as bad a cook as she could be without actually being dangerous). Perhaps I have the advantage of you in having lived in Germany and having experienced the root menu at first hand. In any event lots, literally thousands, seem to enjoy the food – you should just try to get into one of the main restaurants, or even the out of the way ones, on a weekend or the Saturday night of an Iowa football game.

The Amish – Pennsylvania Dutch thing is a little more serious since it implies a cultural heritage for the Colonies that just isn’t there. Since I grew up in a Mennonite community in Ohio and there are growing Amish settlements around here I may be a little sensitive on this particular question. The Amanas are not Amish Town. They are Early Nineteenth Century German Utopia in the New World Town. To equate them to the Amish and Mennonite settlements in Pennsylvania or out here is unfair to both and misrepresents both.

Of course the Amanas are no more German than, for instance Pella is Dutch, Elkhorn is Danish, Decorah is Norwegian, or Spillville is Czech, although all those communities capitalize on the ethnicity of the early settlers. It is a tourist thing but they do it well and with some restraint and good sense.

just…, McGregor is on the Mississippi, I’m about 40 miles due west of there.

32

Mebbe the Amana Society should hook up with the Oneida Community. In these days of corporate mergers and large-scale horizontal integration it only makes sense.

33

I guess I read a tone into your post that wasn’t there. That happens in writing sometimes. I’m sorry. I can be kind of a hothead.

I didn’t grow up in a German-American community, and they all look pretty much the same to me as an outsider. I know the basic differences between Amish, Mennonite, etc., and that the Amish are just one kind of German Anabaptist. I guess that to me, the distinctions don’t seem that important, and I tend to be lazy and just call them all “Amish” without thinking much about it. Obviously, people in those various groups would take exception to that. Sorry if I spread inaccurate information on the Dope about the Amanas. Oops.

Still, I persist in my opinion about the lousy food there. :slight_smile:

34

P.S.–I know a few Pella residents who would disagree with you about it not being a Dutch-American town. In their experience, it’s not just a tourist thing. My friends have a German last name, and they were ostracized from the time they moved in until the minute they left. There’s a local saying–“If you’re not Dutch, you’re not much”–and, apparently, they mean it.

Now I am undoubtedly going to get in trouble for slandering Pella, too.

35

[points]Garb Maven! Garb Maven!

36

Don’t get me started on the Dutch–I live near South Holland, have been to both Pella and Holland (MI–have also been to “Holland” proper).

The question here is --ok, you’re Dutch…but are you 100%?

BTW, I am not at all Dutch, but have blonde hair and blue eyes (I am all WASP)–so, I got this question alot when my husband worked in South Holland. I would then explain that 1. I was not Dutch at all and 2. who cared? I need to work on my diplomacy skills a bit…

Anyhoo, as a former Hawkeye(go Hawks!), I have been to the Amana Colonies. I have also been to any number of other settlements (can’t recall names just now, but Keokuck IA comes to mind)–Hutterites, and Mennonites and Amish etc.

I aplogize, but from the outside looking in, they all seem the same to me. And they all do share some common roots. Jeebus, I had to do a paper in nursing school about cultural diversity in Iowa (in 1980 something) and came up with Mennonite vs Amish.

As to the cooking, some of it’s good and some of it sucks–I would avoid anything off the exit of I-80, always. I find the dishes heavy and kind of leaden in the stomach-not a choice for summer-but for winter, have at it.

I don’t find Amana to be any more touristy than say, Shippshewanna (spelling?) Indiana, to my mind.

Digression: for those who have romanticized the Amish (and I will say here that I admire and respect their ties to the land)-there is a great deal of ignorance and intolerance within the communities. I do not work in an Amish area, but I have friends who do–and the woeful lack of knowledge as to health care, pregnancy, disease transmission etc is appalling. Took me right out any kind of Witness fantasy.

37

About the food

Its home cooking style.
If you are expecting exotic tastes it ain’t there.

Right now I’m thinking Smoked Iowa chops,mashed potatos,fresh garden peas with pearl onions.

Damn its almost lunch time.

38

I remember visiting with my mother about 30 years ago on the way to Grinnell. Mom bought a little wooden curio box to hang on the wall.

We got into the parking lot before we saw the “Made in China” label on the back. Guess Mom was expecting something a bit more, you know, local.

39

So…what am I, chopped bratwurst?

Am I the only one who got Spavined Gelding’s joke about the Yoders?

…What?..I am?..

Well, I thought it was hilarious, anyway. I grew up about 20 miles from Kalona (or as my dad used to call it: Yoderville). “Yoder” is an extremely common name amongst the AMISH population of Kolona. It used to be a bit of a joke amongst previous generations to myself that anyone from Kalona either is a Yoder, or is related to one.

I don’t know if it’s technically true (just as I don’t know if S.G.'s claim that

is technically true), but it sure serves as an illustration of the contrast between the two populations.

Sure…Amish, Mennonite, and…Amananites…are somewhat similar, but so are Lutherans, Catholics, and Protestants…somewhat. To treat them as if they are indistinguishably interchangeable is not accurate, however.

As to the food in the Amanas, one thing that fascinates me (and I haven’t been to one yet, since I’ve only got a bicycle for transportation) is that they have a “Cajun Fest” every year. If those who are participating in this thread want to call a Dopefest in this particular part of the world, I would guess this would be a prime opportunity.

(Insert terrible profanities here)

I just looked up the Cajun Fest to see when it was coming up this year. The answer is: TWO WEEKS AGO!!!1!!ELEVEN1!

(Insert more terrible profanities) :frowning:

40

Why on the way to Grinnell? My mom is from near there [Diagonal and Octagonal, to be exact=) ]

and she makes a wicked spaetzel, taught me to ‘cut’ the dough into the water, but she is fast and how to stretch the dough for proper streudel…no puff pastry in our house for making it=)

kissing don’t last, cooking does…heh