How do the Amish provide so much food for their families?

The Amish grow and raise most of the food they consume. Almost every Amish home I have been to have large gardens and livestock for food. I will discuss their gardening practices in future blogs. They preserve an abundance of food for the non-producing months. In Missouri, the months of November through March are considered too cold to produce much vegetables or fruits.

The Amish have gotten around this a lot by using greenhouses, hoop houses, and cold frame units. Ok, most of you understand that a greenhouse is a permanent structure that is used to recreate the growing environment that the plants are used to having. Slightly different is a hoop house which is normally located in or close to the garden using plastic rods (PVC) as a frame with a outer plastic liner. This allows the plants an extended growing season. Some people are surprised that the Amish can get almost four extra months. Cold frames are used to start plants and to also extend the growing season. The drawback between a cold frame and hoop house is that a cold frame is usually small and needs a building or something to lean against.

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