Fulfilling a dream

[JedidiahStolzfus]

Our setup this evening, it glows nicely.

We might have solved our lack of buffalo sauces. Our sausage supplier has a sister that makes a nice hot sauce that we can use as a base and expand it with our pepper mash. She runs a company making BBQ and other sauces. I spoke with her yesterday, very nice lady. She invited us over to take a look at her operation, we're going to go over and bring the trailer. This family is really neat. Two brothers are butchers running their own shops, she's running a cannery, I haven't met the rest of the clan other than another sister and her husband but they run a small farmstand.

We have a regular gig, for at least twice a month at the place we were tonight. Second time we've been up, they're nice enough to provide us with 120VAC so we don't need to fire up a generator.

 

[Rome]

Congratulations it sounds like you are in full tack.
When project superintendent asks me at work How I'm doing? my answer is "Living the Dream".

 

[JedidiahStolzfus]

A couple weeks ago I stopped an Amish farm run by Amos Miller, if you don't know how that is, google the name and select the news list. First, he's a super nice guy, I like his entire family. But anyway I stopped by to ask him if we could use his walk in reefer in July to hold some extra product for those two days. He agreed without even asking for payment.

Late last week, my wife and I stopped by again so I could introduce her to him, since she'd be the one running out to get extra product. If you read the news, the Amish that work and live there are very tense and suspicious of people right now. We walked into the shop, and it's dark, because it's lit by windows and skylights and it was a dark day. I see someone that looked like Amos sitting in the chair. The other 4 men standing there stopped talking and just stared at us, I asked "Amos?", I get a reply "Ain't no Amos here". I realize that things are more tense than I thought. I quickly explain who I am, and why we're there. They ask me how I know Amos, so now I need to drop some names so they know I'm not bullshitting them. One name I drop assures them I'm friendly. While all this was happening, he one very all guy moves to my left and sits down on a desk, another guy moves to my right, and my wife said a third was a few feet behind me, I never saw him. If I didn't get that straightened out quickly they were probably going to drag me out, but I doubt they would have touched my wife.

Once things settled down we talked for a bit, they said they would tell Amos we stopped by.

The entire controversy is his selling raw milk, which the government believes is a danger to "public" health. Except, he doesn't sell to the public, you cannot walk into his shop and buy raw milk. You must become a member of his co-op, read and sign a waiver stating that you understand the risks of drinking raw milk and you assume all the responsibility for doing so. This right is already enshrined in the food code and you've all have probably seen the disclaimers on menus across the country where they state that eating undercooked beef or eggs might make you ill. It's really no different, you are making that choice to do so, the same as people do in drinking raw milk. Now, that doesn't stop someone from giving that milk to a child or the elderly that have a higher chance of getting sick, nor agree to the waiver. But in that case, it's really no difference than a mother feeding a young child undercooked eggs from her plate, which I've seen countless times in restaurants.

There's a claim in the press that he has engaged in "sovereign citizen" tactics, which isn't true. He hasn't done anything like that, but merely asserted his rights to individual choice and freedom of association. His waiver is more solid than a line in 8pt font at the bottom of a menu in a dark restaurant. One thing that I picked up quickly in doing my ServSafe certification is that there's much about shifting liability from the restaurant to the customer and less on actual food safety.

 

[Rome]

Sounds like Amos is an Amish gangster.
Show pictures of walk in refrigerator.

 

[JedidiahStolzfus]

Sounds like Amos is an Amish gangster.
Show pictures of walk in refrigerator.

He's not. But I can understand his guys looking out for him. I hadn't met those guys a couple weeks ago. But now they know me. I haven't been involved in any physical instances, but I know someone that was at an incident where police were called. Lots of language was exchanged that the married Amish would never utter, and there was some physical interaction. No one was arrested, but the two parties were told to split up, the one that was driven there was told to leave. I don't think I'd ever want to go hand to hand with an Amish man. They're strong, even the older guys you wouldn't want to mess with. The guy that moved to the desk that day was about 6'4", but 6'6" with his hat on.

 

[Rome]

Let me get this right Amish don't buy milk at Costco or Safeway supermarket?

 

[Rome]

Weight lifting body builder's prefer to drink raw milk with their supplements.

 

[kevinmccune]

Weight lifting body builder's prefer to drink raw milk with their supplements.

hrs and hrs of physical labor and i expect they wouldnt tire very quickly either( you know how strong some skinny people are dont you? not calling anybody monkeys-you get the point when i was a punk kid icould easily break away from most people and ididnt weigh but around 135# and was in the top 90% arm wrestlers in high school- yeah hard physical labor is good exercise.

 

[JedidiahStolzfus]

Let me get this right Amish don't buy milk at Costco or Safeway supermarket?

I know you're probably joking, but no. Many of the dairy farms have the "family" cow, that gets milked just for the family. They also have a nursery cow that sits in the pen with the calves and feeds them. Non-dairy farms many times keep one cow on the farm just to feed the family. I know of two farms that share one cow. One family milks in the morning the other in the afternoon. It then grazes in a shared pasture.

My friend raises and sells exclusively A2 milk, and their family cow is a regular cow. Because of the government issues with Amos Miller he's been trying to find a new place to sell his milk. Hopefully he's found one because that's a big source of their income, he's got a family to support. He sounded kind of distraught the other evening I talked to him. He's normally very cheerful.

 

[Roamers]

I just googled Amos and it is sad to see what he is going through. Although I am a supporter of food safety, I also believe, with full disclosure, people should be able to consume what they want.

 

[JedidiahStolzfus]

I just googled Amos and it is sad to see what he is going through. Although I am a supporter of food safety, I also believe, with full disclosure, people should be able to consume what they want.

That's really what it's all about, and that's their belief. But that's also what some of the local news was saying was "sovereign citizen tactics". The media here is rather bi-polar when it comes to the Amish. Everyone loves the amish when they're being exploited as tourist attractions but when something like this happens they're portrayed as the worst people in the world. I know of a couple of families that have sold their land, to other Amish, and fled to the hills, literally. They got tired of tourists trespassing, and their attitudes and left, I drove the truck for one family that did that.

 

[rayray]

That's really what it's all about, and that's their belief. But that's also what some of the local news was saying was "sovereign citizen tactics". The media here is rather bi-polar when it comes to the Amish. Everyone loves the amish when they're being exploited as tourist attractions but when something like this happens they're portrayed as the worst people in the world. I know of a couple of families that have sold their land, to other Amish, and fled to the hills, literally. They got tired of tourists trespassing, and their attitudes and left, I drove the truck for one family that did that.

According to an article I found, Mr. Miller made a claim of Sovereign Citizenship in court. That was a mistake, as U.S. courts don’t recognize such claims. I’d say it’s likely that he’ll lose the lawsuit against him, and will never legally sell raw milk again. With any luck, the criminal violations will be negotiated away.

 

[JedidiahStolzfus]

According to an article I found, Mr. Miller made a claim of Sovereign Citizenship in court. That was a mistake, as U.S. courts don’t recognize such claims. I’d say it’s likely that he’ll lose the lawsuit against him, and will never legally sell raw milk again. With any luck, the criminal violations will be negotiated away.

I was unaware of that, and sadly the SC movement has taken a hold among the Amish. I had one young man asking me about it last year, and I told him that it has no footing in court. Amos' attorney should have told him that. The Amish are stubborn, getting them to do what they need to do in court can be difficult.

 

[JedidiahStolzfus]

If there's anyone here in the Lancaster, PA area we'll be having the trailer out tomorrow at The Sportsman Shop in Blue Ball from 11 to 2 or earlier if we run out of food. Menu for the day is Wings, italian & buffalo w blue cheese and celery, sauasage sammiches with locally made smoked cheedar with peppers & onions, fries and loaded fries.

Our goal is to bring back what got everyone eating wings all those years ago. Sadly, we can never do a 10cent wing night, prices are too high for that, but we're offering classic flavors, with wings that are meaty, juicy and reheat perfectly in the microwave later. We're trying to keep costs down because so many places are offering up to 50 flavors, which raises their costs and in turn raises their prices. We're keeping it simple.

Boneless wings aren't wings, they're chicken nuggets for adults.

 

[Roamers]

Sadly, we can never do a 10cent wing night, prices are too high for that,

We used to get free wings on Thursday (as I recall) night after 9 PM at Ground Round along with TuFer beers. And the bonus of throwing peanut shells on the floor.

 

[kevinmccune]

I know you're probably joking, but no. Many of the dairy farms have the "family" cow, that gets milked just for the family. They also have a nursery cow that sits in the pen with the calves and feeds them. Non-dairy farms many times keep one cow on the farm just to feed the family. I know of two farms that share one cow. One family milks in the morning the other in the afternoon. It then grazes in a shared pasture.

My friend raises and sells exclusively A2 milk, and their family cow is a regular cow. Because of the government issues with Amos Miller he's been trying to find a new place to sell his milk. Hopefully he's found one because that's a big source of their income, he's got a family to support. He sounded kind of distraught the other evening I talked to him. He's normally very cheerful.

i can only imagine how good this milk tastes without the plastic jug!

 

[JedidiahStolzfus]

i can only imagine how good this milk tastes without the plastic jug!

A dairy farmer and I discussed this one night. Honestly, I think whole milk is best when it's served right above the freezing point. I found that the Amish really enjoy chocolate milk that comes from the brown cows. One guy I know carries chocolate mix with him and his own milk in pint jars. Mixes it fresh. All those thousands of Amish families across the US and Canada drink raw milk, and you never hear of any of them getting sick. Probably because their bodies are accustomed to the milk. Same reason unless you're from Mexico, you shouldn't drink the water.

 

[JedidiahStolzfus]

I didn't see no Ebikes riding in today. I did see a mennonite riding by on one though. Our third outing and our take was more than the last, so we're slowly getting there. Much of the issue is miscommunication with people that are helping to promote us on social media. In some cases they're not letting people coming to their location that a truck is going to be there, other cases they're not publishing the correct menu even though we made it clear to them what we'll be serving. People show up after looking at our master menu and then are disappointed when we don't have burgers or chicken corn soup.

Oh well, it'll get better. The pairing of these two companies worked well. Many guys from the neighboring company of the host came over. A couple of them gave us contact names for their other location in another nearby town, actually they said to contact the CEO/Owner directly. He seems like a nice down to earth type guy that his employees really like. We're going to contact him and see if we can go over there. I did some IT work for the location we were at today 30 years ago, and at the time they had 300 or so guys there. In those 30 years they built a whole new production facility and where we were today only had about 40 people. The 300 people are at the new facility. I think we can get out there. Everyone we talked to today we told them we want to be up there once a week, because it is a good spot. Once people know we're here business will pick up.

We stopped down and talked to a nice young Amish lady that we're partnering with to help us with our sauce situation. Very nice lady, recently married and starting off her life with her husband. Beautiful property there. She's got a great operation going making soups and sauces. We bought a case of hot sauce from her to help us stretch our limited supply and it pairs nicely with what we already have made.